But at the heart of this transition, there appears to be a change in how investors are defining value in the segment, where the earlier assumption that delivery speed and network density would eventually improve margins is being reassessed. “The first phase of quick commerce was driven by horizontal scale, with the belief that density and frequency would eventually improve margins, but that assumption has weakened,” says Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, co-founder and president at Venture Catalysts. “Quick commerce is now seen as just an enabler, not a core value proposition.”
