Dunzo Cofounder Mukund Jha Seeks To Raise INR 50-80 Cr For His New GenAI Venture

Hyperlocal delivery startup Dunzo’s cofounder and former chief technology officer Mukund Jha is reportedly in discussions to rake in INR 50-80 Cr ($6-10 Mn) from Together Fund for his new GenAI venture.

Jha is working on a Gen AI startup that will focus on automating quality assurance processes. This involves integrating AI with SaaS to enhance QA checks, which are used to test, identify errors and ensure that products meet quality standards, as per Moneycontrol’s report.

Together Fund, founded in 2021 by Girish Mathrubootham, Manav Garg, and Shubham Gupta, raised $85 Mn in its first fund and expanded to $150 Mn with its second fund in 2023. The fund has invested in over 20 companies across areas like recruitment, sales intelligence, marketing, healthcare and cloud for connected devices. 

Its portfolio includes DhiWise, SpendFlo, SecureDen, and TopLyne.

This fundraising effort follows Inc42’s report in October last year about Jha’s departure from Dunzo. 

Jha, who was with Dunzo from 2015 to 2023, previously worked at Google in New York. During his time there, he attempted to launch two of his own ventures: Wisdom.ly, a group video platform for virtual meetups and conferences, and Habet, an intelligent goal-tracking platform.

The round comes at a time when several top executives from Dunzo are quitting the startup. Earlier this year, Dunzo was dealt a body blow with its key investor Lightbox exiting the company’s board.

Founded in 2015 by Kabeer Biswas, Suri, Jha, and Ankur Aggarwal, Dunzo connects consumers with nearby stores and facilitates deliveries of products including groceries, medicines, and food, among other daily needs.

Inc42 has reached out to Jha for an official confirmation on the matter. The story will be updated based on the response. 

The fundraiser comes at a time when Dunzo is dealing with significant financial challenges. The company is reportedly facing a cash crunch and owes around INR 11.4 Cr to vendors, including Google India, Nilenso, Clover Ventures, Facebook India, Cupshup, Koo, and Glance. This financial strain is reflected in Dunzo’s FY23 results, with the Bengaluru-based quick commerce startup reporting a substantial loss of INR 1,801 Cr, up from INR 464 Cr in the previous fiscal year.