As Zepto gears up for its IPO, the quick commerce company appears to be slowing one of its biggest growth engines, dark store expansion.
According to a recent report by Bank of America (BofA), Zepto added only 110 dark stores in FY26, taking its total network to 1,139 stores. This is a sharp drop from FY25, when the company added 692 stores and expanded its network from 337 to 1,029 locations.
The slowdown comes at a time when investors are closely watching the company's growth strategy and financial position ahead of its public listing.
Among the top quick commerce players, Blinkit continues to expand aggressively. According to BofA, the Eternal-owned platform added 942 dark stores in FY26, taking its total count to 2,243 stores. Instamart, meanwhile, added 122 stores and ended the year with 1,143 dark stores.
With both Zepto and Instamart now operating a similar number of stores, the race appears to be shifting from opening new locations to improving productivity at existing ones.
Interestingly, Zepto processed around 640 million orders during FY26, compared to Instamart's 412 million orders, despite having almost the same number of dark stores. This suggests that Zepto's stores are handling more orders and generating higher throughput.
The moderation in store additions could indicate that Zepto is becoming more cautious with spending as it prepares for the IPO.
BofA estimates that Zepto had net cash of around Rs 2,970 crore at the end of FY26 after adjusting for lease liabilities. Based on its Q4 FY26 free cash outflow of about Rs 802 crore, the startup appears to have roughly 3.7 quarters, or around 10-11 months, of cash runway at its current spending pace.
In comparison, rivals Blinkit and Instamart's parent Swiggy are sitting on much larger cash reserves. Eternal had net cash of around Rs 13,380 crore, while Swiggy held approximately Rs 12,600 crore at the end of FY26, according to BofA.
While these cash reserves are held at the parent-company level and not solely within Blinkit or Instamart, they provide significant financial firepower compared with Zepto's standalone cash position.
For investors, the key question will be whether Zepto can continue growing without aggressively expanding its dark store network. While the company has shown strong order growth and improved store productivity, its relatively smaller cash cushion could become an important factor as competition in quick commerce remains intense.
The numbers suggest that Zepto may be entering a new phase, focusing less on opening stores and more on making existing stores work harder while conserving capital ahead of its IPO.
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