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Barely a day after reports surfaced that Zepto had deferred its IPO plans, the quick commerce giant’s cofounder and CEO Aadit Palicha has reportedly told employees that the startup is now looking to list on the exchanges in the next two to three quarters. 

According to Moneycontrol, Palicha, while addressing an employee town hall meeting, said that Zepto will list on the bourses once its financial metrics improve and valuation terms turn more favourable after the aforementioned period.

This means that the quick commerce major is now aiming to list on the bourses between February 2027 and May 2027. 

Addressing the employees, Zepto CEO also reportedly said that the startup would not have to refile its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) from scratch as the startup still has time until November 2027 to list on the stock exchanges.

As per the report, Zepto will just file an addendum (updated financials) with markets regulator SEBI to move ahead with its prospective listing plans. 

Queries sent to Zepto on the new IPO timeline remained unanswered till the time of publication. 

This comes barely a day after sources told Inc42 that the quick commerce startup has put its public listing on the backburner. However, the startup now plans to raise about ₹1,000 Cr (around $105 Mn) in a pre-IPO funding round from both domestic and overseas investors. 

The new IPO timeline comes as Zepto appears to have made no headway with its institutional backers on valuation concerns. Previous reports suggested that the mutual funds were valuing the startup at about $2.5 Bn-$3 Bn, significantly below the company’s expectations.

The valuation is also less than half of its $7 Bn private market valuation, which it achieved after raising $450 Mn in October 2025.

However, the investor scrutiny has not been without reason. As per previous reports, Zepto currently burns over ₹700 Cr of cash each quarter even as competition in the quick commerce landscape shows no signs of letting down. Players in the category continue to spend heavily on dark store networks, discounts and customer acquisition.

On top of this, the startup continues to post heavy losses. Zepto’s net loss widened to ₹5,095 Cr in FY26 from ₹4,697 Cr a year earlier, even as operating revenue nearly doubled to ₹22,624 Cr.

Notably, this is not the first time that the Aadit Palicha-led startup has postponed its IPO plans. In June 2025, Zepto first paused IPO plans for a year to cut cash burn and improve profitability. It then once again revived its public listing plans a few months later after filing its DRHP with SEBI in November. It then received SEBI’s nod and filed its updated DRHP with the markets regulator in July this year.

According to its UDRHP, the proposed IPO was to include a fresh issue of up to ₹8,010 Cr and an offer for sale of up to 11.35 Cr shares.

The post Zepto To Now Re-Attempt IPO By May 2027: Report appeared first on Inc42 Media.