Aadit Palicha And Kaivalya Vohra: Teen Visionaries To Billion-Dollar Disruptors

Few stories in the crowded battlefield of Indian quick commerce capture the imagination like those of Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, the wunderkind duo behind Zepto. Their meteoric rise from teenage Stanford dropouts to unicorn founders represents not only entrepreneurial success, but also a fundamental shift in how India shops for groceries.

The Zepto journey started in 2021 when Palicha and Vohra, two 19-year-old childhood friends, decided to leave Stanford and go back to India. While most of their peers were settling into freshman dorms, they were fixated on a simple yet revolutionary idea: what if you could get groceries delivered in 10 minutes?

The young founders employed their outsider perspective rather than letting skeptics discourage them. Though they approached them from a Silicon Valley perspective, they were aware of the specific challenges with Indian urban infrastructure since they were raised in Mumbai. Their solution is a system of well-located "dark stores" that carry carefully chosen goods according to hyperlocal demand trends.

The early days were characterized by relentless hustle. The founders personally packed groceries, made deliveries, and slept on office floors. This ground-level immersion provided them with critical insights that algorithms alone could not provide.

"We were not just building technology; we were rebuilding the entire grocery experience from the ground up," Vohra explained in an interview. "That meant understanding every aspect from inventory management to last-mile delivery."

Their complementary abilities proved critical during hypergrowth. Palicha, the visionary CEO, excelled at strategic thinking and fundraising, while Vohra, the technical prodigy who became CTO, established the technological infrastructure that enabled the 10-minute delivery promise.

The young founders demonstrated incredible flexibility as the competition from more established players grew. By mid-2022, just a year after its debut, Zepto had grown to unicorn status, valued at over $1 billion. The founders, however, continued to stay grounded while improving their concept and entering new cities.

Beyond simply delivering groceries more quickly, their remarkable journey from teenagers to tech titans was about keeping a promise that many thought was unachievable in India's complex business environment.