Dunzo

Mukund Jha is looking to secure funds from Together Fund for a Gen AI company aimed at automating quality assurance (QA) processes for businesses

Despite having raised approximately $500 million to date, Dunzo has faced increased competition in the hyperlocal delivery segment

The retail arm of Reliance Industries, which picked up a 26% stake in Dunzo in 2022 for $200 million, has not approved the deal yet, the report added

Troubled quick commerce startup Dunzo has migrated all its employee accounts to Zoho workspace from Google, to bring down costs by at least a third. Google workspace is priced at about Rs 1,600 per user each month under the enterprise plan, while Zoho charges a portion of that at Rs 489 for similar offerings. A Dunzo spokesperson commented on the matter, saying, "This migration is just a regular business decision. There were some initial teething issues for the first couple of days, but all of these have been ironed out now." The company's auditor Deloitte during the regulatory filing casted a doubt on the company being a going concern after net loss ballooned to Rs 1,802 crore in FY23, which is a 288 per cent increase from the previous year. In accounting terms, entities functioning as a 'going concern' have sufficient resources to continue making money and would not go bankrupt in the foreseeable future. After the exit of a Reliance executive from its board and the departure of

Auditor Deloitte has expressed doubt about on-demand delivery platform's ability to continue as a going concern

Dunzo's rush into quick commerce and search for funds have yet to deliver the goods, leaving it in a fragile state

In which we munch over the week's platter of news and views

The ailing startup has heavily cut the scale of its quick-commerce operations to save cash over the past year

Logistics and delivery firm Dunzo plans to settle dues of former employees in next three months while it is regularising salary for its current employees, sources said. The firm backed by Reliance Retail and Google said that while its co-founder Davlir Suri has decided to leave the company, another co-founder Mukund Jha will continue be part of the strategic leadership team. "In June salary of 85 per cent employees were paid. Salary of current employees for the month of July is pending and rest of month salary has been cleared. The July month salary will also be cleared in some time. Dues of ex-employees will be settled in the next three months," a source, who did not wish to be identified, told PTI. The development comes after Dunzo raised USD 75 million in April, and fired about 300 employees in the first half of this year as part of cost-cutting measures. The company in total has raised around USD 457 million. Another source said that the company has plans to lay off around 150

Dunzo did not say when Suri would leave nor did it name his replacement. Ankur Agarwal and Mukund Jha are the company's other co-founders

Dunzo, a quick commerce startup backed by Reliance and Google, had earlier told its employees that their June and July salaries would be paid in September

Dunzo's salary deferrals come even as the firm raised $75 million in funding through convertible notes in April this year, indicating its high cash burn rate

Quick commerce and logistics app Dunzo's seller arm has joined the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) and is looking to onboard over 20,000 merchants across verticals in the next 45 days, the company said on Thursday. The seller app, which joined the ONDC less than two weeks ago, is already witnessing high volumes, according to a senior executive. In addition to being a logistics partner on the network, the seller app will onboard 1,500 local merchants in the next one week. It is targeting to have 20,000 local merchants across food, grocery, pharma among other sectors in the next 45 days. Dunzo Co-Founder Dalvir Suri said since the onboarding on the ONDC, there has been a three-time increase in the number of daily orders for merchants. "It's been less than two weeks since we've been live on the network, and have already hit peak order volumes of more than 3,000 a day for groceries and other essential items through our local merchants," he said. Dunzo had joined the ONDC abo

Quick commerce firm will provide merchants customer and last-mile logistics delivery support for joining network

Quick-commerce player Dunzo is struggling not only with financial losses but also with keeping its operations afloat

Salaries for June, July and August are likely to be paid at the same time

Bengaluru-based quick commerce startup Dunzo has deferred salary payouts for its employees again, according to sources. An internal mail was shared with employees in which the cash-strapped logistics firm, previously backed by Google and Reliance Retail, has stated that the remaining salary for June and July would be paid with the August salary payout, in the first week of September, sources said. The company did not immediately comment on the development. Dunzo had previously delayed salaries of half of its 1000-strong workforce till July 20, impacting their top management the most. In April this year, the company had raised USD 75 million (around Rs 616 crore) and also fired about 400 employees in the first half of this year as part of cost-cutting measures.

Reliance Retail picked up 25.8% of Dunzo's shares back in January 2022 after investing $240 million into the startup

Reliance Retail and Google-backed logistics and delivery platform Dunzo has deferred payment of the June salaries to about 500 employees, according to sources. Dunzo's top management is expected to be most impacted by the decision, sources said. The development comes after Dunzo raised USD 75 million in April, and fired about 400 employees in the first half of this year as part of cost-cutting measures. The company at present has around 1,000 employees. Dunzo has raised USD 457.6 million in 19 rounds of funding, according to Crunchbase data. Reliance Retail holds around 25 per cent and Google has a 20 per cent stake in Dunzo, while there are 33 other investors, the data showed. Dunzo has expanded business as a logistics aggregator and roping in delivery partners on a need basis rather than relying on 'dark stores' or in-house item storing.

Reliance Retail backed Dunzo's logistics arm Dunzo4Business plans to expand the business to 10-15 cities in the next 12-18 months, a senior company official has said. Dunzo co-founder and Dunzo4Business (D4B) head Dalvir Suri told PTI that the logistics aggregator firm is working, along with the government-supported Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), to cater to intracity last mile delivery of products. "In a year's time or 18 months' time, along with ONDC and my b2b logistics business, we do see ourselves entering into 10 to 15 new cities," Suri said. He said that at present, D4B has a presence in about 10 cities. The company joined the ONDC platform about a year ago and, currently, claims to be serving 60-70 per of the total order received on the platform for the last mile delivery, besides orders received on Dunzo for delivery of groceries and some other merchants. "Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai are four cities where they (ONDC users) are putting most of the ..