Dark store franchise in India: cost, official routes and scams
Updated October 2026
No quick-commerce app sells a dark store franchise at a published price. Blinkit is the only app with official partner and rent-your-property pages. A 2,500–3,000 sq ft dark store costs the company about ₹1.4–1.6 crore to set up (September 2026).
Zepto runs about a third of its stores through partners called Growth Partners, but publishes no way to apply. No app publishes a franchise fee or a profit figure. Fake franchise sites using the Blinkit and Zepto names have cost people lakhs.
General information, not financial or legal advice. Confirm every term with the company on its own website before you pay anything.
Which apps offer a dark store franchise or partner programme
| App | Official store-partner route | Where things stand | Guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blinkit | Partner store (franchise) and Rent your property | Blinkit is the only quick-commerce app with public, official pages for store partners, landlords and sellers. | Blinkit franchise guide |
| Zepto | No official page | Zepto runs about a third of its stores through franchise-style “Growth Partners”, but publishes no application route or fee for them. | Zepto franchise guide |
| Swiggy Instamart | No official page | Swiggy has no public Instamart franchise or store-partner page and publishes no franchise fee. | Instamart franchise guide |
| BigBasket BB Now | No official page | BigBasket, owned by Tata Digital, does not advertise a BB Now franchise. | BB Now franchise guide |
| Flipkart Minutes | No official page | Flipkart has no public franchise or store-partner programme for Flipkart Minutes. | Flipkart Minutes franchise guide |
| Amazon Now | No official page | Amazon has no public franchise programme for Amazon Now. | Amazon Now franchise guide |
| JioMart | No official page | JioMart has no public franchise programme. | JioMart franchise guide |
“No official page” means the company shows no partner application on its own website. Some apps may still sign store partners privately. Treat any franchise offer that reaches you through ads, calls or WhatsApp with suspicion.
Dark store franchise cost: blog claims and the facts
Search for “Blinkit franchise cost” and most results are blogs quoting confident investment and profit figures. None of them comes from the company, so do not plan your money around them.
| Common claim | The facts |
|---|---|
| A Blinkit or Zepto franchise costs a fixed amount, often quoted in lakhs. | No app publishes a franchise fee. Blogs that quote a “franchise cost” give no company source for it. |
| You earn a fixed monthly profit or a guaranteed return. | No app publishes partner profit or returns. What a store earns depends on orders per day, rent and the app’s commission. You only see those terms in a signed agreement. |
| You can apply through a “franchise portal” and pay a registration fee. | Blinkit’s partner and landlord pages sit on its own domain (partners.blinkit.com and blinkit.com/rentyourproperty). Police and courts have shut down cloned “franchise” sites that took UPI deposits. |
| Every app sells franchises. | Of the seven apps in the table above, only Blinkit has public partner pages. Zepto uses partner-run stores too, but publishes no way to apply. |
Is there a Blinkit franchise app?
Yes, but only for people who already run a store. Blink Commerce Private Limited publishes an app called Blinkit Partners. It was called “Blinkit Franchise” until 2025.
The app shows a store’s sales, orders, customer complaints, staff allocation, picking speed and payouts. It is the clearest public sign that Blinkit runs part of its network with store partners. You cannot apply through it. New partners go through Blinkit’s partner page.
Zepto Growth Partners and partner-run stores
Zepto runs a mix of stores it leases itself and stores run by franchise-style “Growth Partners”. At the end of FY26 (March 2026), Growth Partners ran 36.6% of Zepto’s stores, according to Zepto’s IPO papers.
Zepto has not published how to become a Growth Partner, what a partner invests or what a partner earns. Anyone asking for a “registration fee” or “security deposit” to make you a Zepto partner has no published Zepto process behind them.
How to apply for a dark store franchise safely
- Open the company’s own website by typing the address yourself. Fraudsters buy search ads for “franchise” keywords.
- Pick your route: partner store, property lease, product seller or delivery work.
- Keep your documents ready: GST, PAN, property title or lease, photos and, for food, FSSAI.
- Get every term in writing (rent, deposit, revenue share, lock-in, exit). Ask a lawyer or CA to read it.
- Pay nothing until you have a signed agreement with the company. Then pay only into a company account.
What a dark store costs to set up
These are estimates of what a store costs the app. No app charges partners these amounts as a fee.
- Industry estimates put a 2,500–3,000 sq ft store at about ₹1.4–1.6 crore, a 5,000 sq ft store at about ₹2.4–2.5 crore and a 7,000 sq ft store at about ₹3 crore, counting a share of warehouse costs (September 2026).
- Blinkit says a new store, with its share of warehousing, now costs about ₹2.5 crore, up from its earlier figure of about ₹1 crore. It expects each store to sell about ₹11 lakh a day, up from about ₹7 lakh (July 2026).
For a partner, the monthly unit economics matter more than the set-up cost: orders a day, average order value, the app’s commission, rent, staff and wastage from expired stock. A busy store can still lose money if its rent and staff costs run ahead of its orders.
Questions to ask before you sign a partner agreement
- Who pays for the fit-out and the first stock?
- What commission or fee does the app keep, and how are payouts worked out?
- How long is the lock-in, and what does it cost to exit early?
- Whose name will the FSSAI licence, trade licence and fire NOC be in?
Fake Zepto and Blinkit franchise scams caught by police
- In October 2025, Varanasi cyber police arrested two men from Jharkhand and Bihar who ran fake Zepto and Blinkit “franchise” websites. They pushed the sites with paid search and social media ads, then took “registration” and “security deposit” money by UPI. One victim lost ₹20.16 lakh.
- On 26 August 2025 the Delhi High Court ordered fake Zepto job and franchise sites, such as zeptojob.com and zeptojobs.in, to be taken down. Banks had to freeze the linked accounts, and the phone numbers used were blocked.
- In October 2025 Blinkit’s CEO warned that people were charging brands for a “fast track” listing. Blinkit says there are “no shortcuts and no official partners for listing products on Blinkit”.
Lost money? Call 1930 or report it at cybercrime.gov.in straight away, and tell your bank.
Frequently asked questions about a dark store franchise
Can I rent my property to a quick-commerce app instead?
Yes, and it needs far less money than running a store. Blinkit has a public landlord form, and the other apps use brokers.
Do Zepto, Swiggy Instamart or Flipkart Minutes offer a franchise?
Not publicly. None has a store-partner application page on its own website, and none publishes a fee. Treat any “Zepto franchise” or “Instamart franchise” offer through ads, calls or WhatsApp as a likely scam until the company confirms it in writing.
Other ways to earn from dark stores
- Rent your property to a dark store
Space needs, rent and lease clauses.
- Sell your products on quick delivery apps
Seller sign-up, documents and commissions.
- Dark store jobs and pay
Picker and rider pay, and where the stores are.