With Zepto becoming first unicorn of 2023, is funding winter about to thaw?

Quick commerce startups hope to race towards better days. Can they crack the execution code?

This is what one big funding round can do. Quick commerce rode the buzz of 10- and 15-minute deliveries. But its business model just as quickly came under question. The detractors sniggered that startup innovation, instead of solving the world’s intractable problems, was now focused on getting your grocery a few minutes quicker.

It did not help that some quick commerce firms found themselves on shaky ground, hobbled by slim margins and high cash burn.
 

But now that Zepto, which first came into the limelight by promising 10-minute deliveries, has become this year’s first unicorn while raising $200 million last