2001-born Aadit Palicha is one of the youngest CEOs of a billion-dollar Indian company. The Mumbai-based entrepreneur was supposed to join the prestigious Stanford University in the US to study computer science after schooling. However, Covid-19 impacted those plans, eventually leading Aadit Palicha to drop out of the course. Two years fast forward, he is the CEO of one of the fastest growing companies in a space which has competitors like Tata-owned BigBasket and Mukesh Ambani’s RIL-backed Dunzo, and US billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Amazon.
Aadit Palicha is the founder and CEO of online grocery delivery service, Zepto, which touched a valuation of Rs 7400 crore ($900 million) in just 1 year. Today, the company is worth over Rs 11,600 crore ($1.4 billion). The meteoric rise of Zepto catapulted 20-year-old Palicha to one of the richest people in the country with a net worth of Rs 1,200, as per the 2022 Hurun list. His co-founder and childhood friend Kaivalya Vohra also boasted a net worth of Rs 1,000 crore. He is also a Stanford dropout, following the same trajectory as Palicha.
Zepto is not the first venture of Aadit Palicha. He started his first business in 17 with a company named GoPool. However, the business wasn’t a success. Aadit was then set to go and study in the US before the pandemic hit. With the Stanford course becoming virtual the benefits would not be the same. Instead of being troubled by this setback, Aadit teamed up with Kaivalya to start a company called KiranaKart. That business, however, only lasted 10 months as they were unable to find “a strong product-market fit”.
The duo then co-founded Zepto in 2021 amid the pandemic and managed to remarkably scale up within a year to bag millions of dollars in funding. Within months of Zepto’s launch, the two had become millionaires. The valuation kept increasing from $500 million in 5 months, $900 million in a year and $1.4 billion in 2 years. By the time he would have graduated with a Computer Science degree, Aadit Palicha is the CEO of a company worth over Rs 11,600 crore.
