Dunzo Bags Series E From Google, Lightbox To Capitalise On Hyperlocal Demand Surge

Bengaluru-based hyperlocal delivery startup Dunzo has raised $40 Mn in its ongoing Series E funding round from new and existing investors including Google, Lightbox, Evolvence, Hana Financial Investment, LGT Lightstone Aspada, and Alteria among others.

The company said it plans to focus on sustainable growth and capitalise on the traction achieved in the past few months in Mumbai, Chennai, and Pune, besides Delhi NCR and Bengaluru.

The company last raised $28 Mn in a Series E funding round in September last year, led by Google and Lightstone. Existing investors Lightbox, 3 L Capital, Moving Capital, Pivot Ventures and Bhoruka Finance Corporation also participated in this round. Prior to this, Dunzo had raised $45 Mn funding from Google, Lightbox Ventures, STIC and 3L Capital in a Series D round in September 2019 to expand its technology infrastructure and develop partnerships with small and medium businesses. Google has been an investor in Dunzo since 2017 and has invested in the Series E through its $10 Bn Google For India Digitization Fund.

Overall, Dunzo has raised over $135 Mn in funding across several rounds. Founded by Dalvir Suri, Mukund Jha, Kabeer Biswas and Ankur Aggarwal in 2015, Dunzo connects consumers with vendors and stores nearby for purchases, and also fulfills door-to-door courier services and on-demand deliveries of non-essential items as well. It is looking to take its offerings a step further with drone delivery, which was ready to go for trials in August with the help of management consulting firm Alternative Global India (AGI).

The company posted a near 10x growth in overall income from INR 3.5 Cr to INR 32.3 Cr, but its losses also rose sharply to reach INR 338.3 Cr in the year, as per the company’s latest financials. That represents an over 2x rise in losses compared to FY2019, when the company had reported INR 168.9 Cr in losses.

In the fiscal year 2020, ended March 31, 2020, Dunzo spent over INR 359.49 Cr, which is more than double of FY19’s INR 168.8 Cr in expenses. Its spending for deliveries was the single largest cost centre, accounting for nearly a third of the total expenditure in the fiscal — growing 98.5% from FY19 to reach INR 116.4 Cr.

On the income side, the company posted 35X growth in revenue from operations from INR 76.5 Lakh to INR 27.45 Cr during FY20. Dunzo saw commissions skyrocket by over 20x to reach INR 14.6 Cr in the year, compared to just INR 68.2 Lakh in FY2019.

Dunzo has claimed that it witnessed strong demand during 2020 and is doing $100 Mn business in annualised gross merchandise value (GMV), which is nearly double of 2019. It claims to have supported vendors in over 300 neighbourhoods across eight cities in the past six months, with a 29-minute average delivery time.

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