Aadit Palicha started KiranaKart with Kaivalya Vohra in 2020 when they were 17 years old.[6][7] Palicha and Vohra skipped college to start Zepto, instead raising capital from Contrary, which offered to invest if they dropped out of Stanford University.[8][9]

Palicha and Vohra originally branded the company as KiranaKart and focused on facilitating grocery delivery by partnering with local kirana stores, but that approach did not gain traction.[10] They also participated in Y Combinator's accelerator program while building out the first version of the platform.[11]

In 2021, the company rebranded to Zepto and verticalized the operation, building a network of dark stores to fulfill orders. In April 2022, Zepto launched Cafe, a division focused on delivery of coffee and ready-to-eat food.[12] In February 2023, the company launched Bloom, a platform for farmers to manage food production and distribute goods from villages to cities.[13]

Zepto and other major delivery platforms including Zomato, Blinkit, and Swiggy employ over 3 million gig workers. The company began a paid membership program in February 2024,[14] which has over 4 million subscribers as of April 2024.[15]

In 2024, Zepto moved its headquarters from Mumbai to Bengaluru.[2]