In just a year, Zepto's valuation has more than doubled to $3.6 billion with a new investment round of $665 million.

The Mumbai-based firm is stepping up its attempts to take share of the competitive Indian rapid commerce sector.

Zepto delivers a wide range of products, including groceries and tech devices, to customers in major Indian cities quickly. Most businesses in the rapid-delivery category have failed in industrialized countries. However, in India, this model is successful.

Zepto announced that Glade Brook, Nexus, and StepStone Group co-led the extremely popular Series F round. The startup said that Goodwater, Lachy Groom, and Contrary, who had previously backed the business, have joined new investors Avenir, Lightspeed, and Avra (Anu Hariharan's fund, the former YC Continuity exec).

Two sources say that DST Global, a supporter of Zepto's competitor Swiggy, co-led the latest investment round. Zepto declined to comment and did not reveal DST Global's involvement in the latest fundraising round.

Zepto competes with BlinkIt, owned by Zomato, and Instamart, a product of Swiggy in the fast commerce space.

These fast-moving businesses have set up a large number of covert warehouses, or "dark stores," all around urban India. These facilities are in a great location to quickly fulfill orders, as they are only a short distance away from areas with high demand from both residents and businesses.

Zepto aims to expand its network to include more than 700 dark stores by March 2025. The company said that its sales are expected to exceed $1 billion per year, with revenue growing 140% from the previous year. It currently has over 50,000 delivery partners in use and adds over 5,000 new ones every month.

According to the corporation, as of last month, approximately 75% of its dark locations had positive EBITDA. According to Zepto, a dark store that took 23 months to become profitable now does so in six months because of increased scale and efficiency.