Zepto’s fast growth meets hard maths

Read about what Zepto's IPO test means for quick commerce, how AI data centers in SEA strain water resources, and how the rise of ElevenLabs unfolded.

Read from your browser Daily Newsletter Welcome to Tech in Asia's daily newsletter, your essential dose of Asia's tech and startup buzz. Not yet a subscriber? Register here. Got a story tip? Send it to editors@techinasia.com. IN FOCUS ​​Inside Zepto's IPO rush ​​The water supply issue underlying SEA's data center ambitions A look back at our previous interview with ElevenLabs' CEO and co-founder Hello Betamax, Cracked eggs, rotten vegetables, and expired items - after a string of bad experiences over the past few months, I've reduced my reliance on quick commerce apps. I have also become more conscious of each delivery's environmental impact, so now I feel a twinge of guilt every time I open one of these apps. Whenever I turn to quick commerce these days - only for groceries - I do so more intentionally. What used to be a daily habit is now down to about two to three orders a week (at least that's the plan). This works, thanks to the occasional trips I make to the neighborhood kirana store. I know I'm not the only one embracing such a change, especially at a time when quick commerce has increasingly faced scrutiny from regulators and resistance from delivery riders over poor working conditions and sustainability concerns. The honeymoon phase may indeed be over. And yet, this is precisely the moment Zepto is heading to the public markets. In today's first top story, I unpack what's driving the company's rush to an IPO. One of the OGs of quick commerce in India, Zepto is preparing for a US$1.3 billion IPO. While the firm's revenue doubled to roughly US$1 billion in FY25, its losses rose to US$366 million, nearly 3x the previous year. Public markets don't reward speed alone; they demand discipline. With losses growing and competition intensifying from Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, and retail giants like Reliance and Amazon, Zepto now has to prove it can make money. A shift to an inventory-led model could improve its margins, but this requires domestic ownership above 50% under India's Foreign Direct Investment rules, making the IPO strategically important. Groceries can still arrive at your doorstep in minutes; delivering sustainable profits is now the real challenge for Zepto. If quick commerce strains the environment, AI poses an even greater threat. Our next top story digs into the heavy water demands of the data centers fueling Southeast Asia's AI boom. All of this underscores the long-term costs we pay for the convenience of tech. Samreen Ahmad, journalist TOP STORIES 1️⃣ Zepto's IPO puts India's quick commerce model to the test The company will test whether quick commerce can move from speed to sustainable profits. Built by Stanford dropouts Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, Zepto is one of India's biggest startup success stories. But as investor patience for cash burn fades amid regulatory scrutiny and slowing growth, the firm now faces a tougher test of discipline. 2️⃣ Southeast Asia's data center boom has a water problem The region's push to attract AI-driven data centers is running into a water constraint. Places like Malaysia's Johor are already pausing approvals for Tier 1 and Tier 2 data centers amid mounting water supply concerns, and this article highlights how the resource's usage is becoming a deciding factor in where and how Southeast Asia's AI infrastructure can grow. FROM OUR ARCHIVES AI voice generating startup ElevenLabs crosses $300m in ARR If 2025 was the year AI agents went mainstream, 2026 may well be the year of voice AI. The shift is underscored by ElevenLabs, a London-based AI voice company that has reached an US$11 billion valuation after closing US$500 million in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital. The raise adds new context to this 2025 piece by my colleague Melissa, which showed a company already generating over US$300 million in annual recurring revenue, training its own models, and building data-center capacity. ElevenLabs had also moved beyond novelty voice tools into enterprise voice agents, dubbing, and licensed voice marketplaces. AI voice is no longer a niche add-on. It is fast becoming the core infrastructure for customer service, media, and AI agents. This places the company at the center of the opportunity. TRENDING NEWS 1️⃣ Workday to cut around 400 employees The layoffs will affect about 2% of the firm's workforce and lead to charges of roughly US$135 million in the fourth quarter ending January. Workday had about 20,600 employees as of last October. 2️⃣ Grab named exclusive distributor of China's Hesai lidar in SEA Grab will oversee sales, support, and marketing for Hesai's lidar products, expanding regional access to autonomous and mapping technologies. Meanwhile, Hesai will leverage Grab's distribution to serve rising demand in robotics, logistics, and manufacturing. 3️⃣ Alphabet reports $400b revenue in 2025 The growth was driven by gains in search, YouTube, and cloud services. Alphabet plans to allocate US$175 billion to US$185 billion in capital expenditure for 2026 to support AI and other growth areas. 4️⃣ Singtel to open sales office in Brazil The telco conglomerate plans to bring its SD-WAN, cloud, and secure network services to Brazil, where the digital market is expected to top US$50 billion by 2030. Demand is rising as the country's enterprise telecom sector grows at an annual rate of 7.2%. 5️⃣ Baidu launches $5b share buyback, plans first dividend in 2026 This reflects the Chinese tech giant's efforts to improve shareholder returns while its core advertising business slows. Baidu continues to focus on investments in AI and autonomous driving tech. 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