Aadit Palicha, CEO and co-founder of quick-commerce startup Zepto, has responded to recent remarks made by the Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal at the Startup Mahakumbh 2025, in New Delhi, today. Speaking at the event, which runs from April 3-5, the minister said that India’s startup ecosystem should aim higher than creating “delivery boys and girls.”
“Food delivery apps are turning jobless youth into cheap labour so the rich can eat without leaving home”, added Goyal. Palicha took to social media platform Twitter to defend the contributions of consumer internet startups like Zepto, while acknowledging the challenges ahead.
Aadit Palicha highlighted Zepto’s achievements
In his post, Palicha highlighted Zepto’s rapid growth and impact since its inception just three and a half years ago. Palicha claimed that the company has generated approximately 1.5 lakh jobs, providing livelihoods to thousands across India. He also mentioned that Zepto contributes over Rs 1,000 crore annually in taxes and has attracted more than $1 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI). Palicha also emphasised that the startup has invested heavily in organizing India’s backend supply chains, particularly in the fresh produce sector, driving efficiency and innovation.
Addressing broader challenges
While defending Zepto’s contributions, Palicha also acknowledged that the company is still far from being a “great internet company” on par with global giants like Amazon, Google, or Alibaba. He pointed out that India has yet to build large-scale internet enterprises capable of driving foundational advancements in technologies like artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
Palicha urged the startup ecosystem, government, and financial institutions to support the growth of domestic consumer internet companies.
Read Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha’s complete post here
It is easy to criticise consumer internet startups in India, especially when you compare them to the deep technical excellence being built in US/China. Using our example, the reality is this: there are almost 1.5 Lakh real people who are earning livelihoods on Zepto today – a company that did not exist 3.5 years ago. ₹1,000+ Crores of tax contribution to the government per year, over a billion dollars of FDI brought into the country and hundreds of crores invested in organizing India’s backend supply chains (especially for fresh fruits and vegetables). If that isn’t a miracle in Indian innovation, I honestly don’t know what is.
Why doesn’t India have its own large-scale foundational AI model? It’s because we still haven’t built great internet companies. Most technology-led innovation over the past 2 decades has originated from consumer internet companies. Who scaled cloud computing? Amazon (originally a consumer internet company). Who are the big players in AI today? Facebook, Google, Alibaba, Tencent etc. (all started as consumer internet companies). Consumer internet companies drive this innovation because they have the best data, talent, and capital to put behind it. We need to build great local champions in internet that are generating hundreds of millions of dollars in FCF first if we ever want to get a piece of great technology revolutions. The startup ecosystem, the government, and the owners of large pools of Indian capital need to actively support the creation of these local champions, not pull down the teams that are trying hard to get there.
Zepto is still far away from being a great Internet company that can hold a candle to the global best. But we are executing day in and day out to get there. I can promise that any capital we generate from this business (and it honestly looks like we will) will be invested towards long-term innovation and value creation in India. That is essentially what I am dedicating the next few decades of my life to try to do: create dynamism in the Indian economy and our capital markets, in the same way the Americans have for decades. We have the talent and capital; we just need the execution.
