Zepto, the buzzy 10-minute grocery delivery app, held talks for a potential acquisition by online food delivery platforms Zomato and Swiggy a couple of months ago, three people familiar with the matter said.

“The talks happened with Zomato as well as Swiggy. However, the conversation did not reach an advanced stage where term sheets were signed. The valuations offered were pretty aggressive, it was significant premium to the last round the company raised, which was at a valuation of USD 570 million,” one of the sources said.

A second source said while Zomato approached Zepto with a buyout offer close to a billion dollars, the latter also tested the waters with Swiggy.

“For Swiggy, it was about consolidation and taking out a competitor from the market. It did not reach a stage where they discussed how Zepto would be integrated with Swiggy’s Instamart grocery delivery service. It would have mostly been an acquihire, with Instamart’s current team continuing to run the operations,” a third source said.

“Aadit (Zepto’s founder) ultimately decided to build out his company independently and is now raising a funding round that will value it at USD 1.1 Billion,” the source added.

Within months of raising USD 60 million in its first institutional round, last month Zepto raised USD 100 million in a round led by YC Continuity at a valuation of USD 570 million. Ravi Inukonda, a senior executive at DoorDash and Nilam Ganenthiram, the President of Instacart also participated in the round.