PepperTap calls time on grocery delivery business

India’s PepperTap has decided to close down its online grocery delivery business. Navneet Singh, PepperTap CEO and co-founder, said that some of the company’s 200 staff will be retained to set up a new business that will focus on e-commerce logistics and have “both forward and reverse logistics play”, but most will be let go.

“It was a very difficult decision to make,” commented Singh. “We already have significant amount of capital left in the bank. But the path to profitability in the grocery business looked very distant, at least two or three years away.”

Singh told The Times of India that the company was “losing cash on every order”, adding: “The unique challenges of this business are not solvable in the short term and certainly not solvable without massive injections of capital.”

The PepperTap website now carries the message: “Thank You For The Amazing Journey!” and “Goodbye!”