How ZenZebra Is Reimagining Offline Retail For The Digital Consumer
Unboxing is joy. But, the excitement fizzles out the moment you discover that it is not what you had seen on the screen.
The disconnect between what was promised and what was delivered has led to recurrent retail fatigue among modern-day consumers. For today’s consumers, spoiled by choice but stripped of touch, online shopping has lost its joy, becoming more gamble than gratification.
Yet, India’s $138 Bn ecommerce goes full throttle to breach the $400 Bn mark by 2030. What’s the catch? Approximately 90% of India’s retail market which is surging to scale $2.2 Tn by the same year is still offline, even though a major portion of purchases are influenced online.
This presents a curious paradox: shoppers want that personal, sensory thrill of physical retail but the typical offline experience often fails to keep pace with the convenience and curation of digital platforms.
Delhi-based contextual retail platform ZenZebra aims to bridge this gap by bringing the best of virtual shopping into the real world. Think of it as a ‘lifestyle store on the go’. They curate physical shopping spaces or embedded setups called BreakSpots in busy, high-traffic locations such as office complexes, coworking hubs like Awfis or Smartworks, gyms, fitness centres, hotels, and universities.
The startup has so far worked with over 200 Indian brands across lifestyle and consumer categories, enabling offline customer discovery.
ZenZebra uses data and observations to understand each location, its rhythm, people and mood. And, then it handpicks trending, trusted direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands that fit seamlessly into that specific lifestyle.
Each BreakSpot is designed around three categories – Snack Spot for cleaner, better snacking, Glow-Up Corner for beauty and self-care brands, and Style Studio for fashion and accessories. The entire experience is built on the trifecta of value, assurance and convenience, allowing consumers to touch, try and purchase.
It targets the new generation of ‘self-expressive nomads and aesthetic hustlers’ or individuals who move fast, crave experiences, and look for a moment of curated pause in their day.
They earn their margins from the sale of goods, subscription charges, advertisements and samplings. The company reached a topline of approximately INR 20 Lakh in the first half of 2025, with its initial storefronts in profit within a year. For FY26, ZenZebra aims at INR 30-40 Lakh in revenue.
To fuel its early growth and validate its Minimum Viable Product (MVP), the startup raised a pre-seed round of around INR 1 Cr from Rukam Capital.
When school-time friends Tanmay Jain and Gurpreet Juneja set up ZenZebra in 2024, their chief capital was their experience. While Jain, a CA, CFA and LLB, brought his understanding of brand, business and emotion as the chief of staff to the CEO at Sleepy Owl Coffee, Juneja had the operational expertise of having cofounded and scaled a B2B construction venture beyond INR 100 Cr.
The idea of ZenZebra came from a mix of curiosity and coincidence. Jain, having worked in a fast-growing D2C brand, had seen firsthand how powerful it could be to build a funnel into a consumer’s everyday life. Juneja, meanwhile, was deep in the B2B construction world, working with corporates and hotels on physical spaces. They would often crack jokes: “
That’s when the dots were connected: brands meet space, consumer meets convenience and ZenZebra was born.
The friends believed that shopping was no longer giving that humane feel. For modern consumers, algorithmic targeting felt predatory, and influencer marketing was becoming hypnotic. The online world became infinite as consumers could buy everything, but couldn’t feel anything.
“When we spoke to hundreds of consumers and 200 brands before launch, one thing stood out: Trust thrives offline,” said Jain.
ZenZebra operates on an asset-light, experience-heavy model. It doesn’t own real estate; instead, it embeds its curated setups within high-footfall locations. This approach enables the brand to deliver products and experiences tailored to local demographics and consumer preferences.
The commitment is clear. For brands, they are a high-intent discovery channel to capture the top 10% consumer attention at the moment of curiosity. For spaces, an engagement partner. And, for consumers, it is the emotional assurance of being able to touch, try and trust a product, without the risk of regretting an online purchase.
But, setting the ball rolling wasn’t really smooth. The first six months were full of challenges. Convincing both channel partners (landlords) and brand partners to take a leap of faith on a concept that only existed as a conviction-driven pitch deck was the toughest task.
“Convincing brands to send inventory to a company with no website and just two cofounder-cum-employees was madness on paper,” Jain recalled. “But when the first major client said yes, things changed, and belief started to ripple.” The duo spent six months standing on the floor, learning how people pause, browse, and buy. Every mistake helped shape up the format, and every conversation built the playbook.
The company has secured collaborations with six listed real estate players. ZenZebra uses unconventional, guerrilla marketing tactics, from putting stickers on every touchpoint and flying message-laden balloons to hosting events like
sessions during
and creating red carpet store launch events or staff walking around as vampires.
ZenZebra is pioneering a new category, and the founders stressed that the support of their investors was not just about capital, but about confidence. When channel and brand partners were hesitant, Rukam Capital “saw the vision from day zero”, Jain shared.
ZenZebra raised its pre-seed round from Rukam Capital to develop its MVP. The partnership was driven by Rukam’s early conviction in the category and its focus on experience-led consumer models. But beyond capital, Rukam has also provided strategic guidance and access to relevant networks.
“As lines between work, shop and entertainment blur, forward-looking formats like ZenZebra are bound to succeed, said Archana Jahagirdar, founder and managing director at Rukam Capital.
Jahagirdar also shared why the firm invested in ZenZebra, saying, “To disrupt anything in retail requires fresh thinking and the ability to execute with precision. ZenZebra has both, and that’s why we are backing them.”
In the near future, Rukam will help ZenZebra execute in a category which is relatively new and spend time with the founders to streamline cash flow management. The firm also plans to engage with ZenZebra to hire the right set of people and assist the founders in core areas like marketing and business finance.
“Regular interactions with team Rukam have really helped us. Thanks to Rukam, we could sharpen the company’s thinking and maintain clarity on execution priorities at an early stage,” added Jain.
The future of ecommerce lies in solving the consumer’s need for an accessible and convenient shopping experience. The unorganised and sporadic nature of the current physical discovery channel presents a massive opportunity for a structured, data-backed and human-centric solution.
ZenZebra’s immediate roadmap is aggressive as the company plans to open 50 more such physical shopping spaces in the next 18-24 months, with the estimate to cover close to 6 Lakh people a day. The company is also working to launch stores with major groups in the last quarter and to develop a corporate gifting vertical.
The company sees itself as the definitive ‘better offline’ experience, cementing the habit of impulse commerce built on the foundation of trust and touch.
Its asset-light model helps it compete with scattered, informal retail points, as it actively defines an organised, scalable solution for physical discovery, allowing it to capture the market before rivals emerge.
“We are building what we call impulse commerce – capturing attention at the moment of curiosity, right where life happens. Our model is asset-light, data-smart and financially sensible,” said Jain.
ZenZebra’s journey suggests that while digital is about the endless scroll, the next wave of commerce innovation is about the curated pause. By embedding discovery and convenience directly in the consumer’s daily life, the company is staking a claim on the future of physical retail.
Its true measure will be its ability to not only scale rapidly in the absence of structured competition but also to maintain profitability and brand trust as the concept matures, proving that a blend of data-driven curation and human experience can create a durable commerce model in a market dominated by online trends.
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