Exclusive: Dunzo Adds INR 60 Cr To Its Series E Kitty From A Clutch Of Investors

Bengaluru-based delivery startup Dunzo has raised INR 60 Cr funding from 10 investors as part of its ongoing Series E round. Prior to this, the company had bagged INR 217.3 Cr ($28 Mn) in September 2020 from existing investors including Google and Lightstone. Those investments were a part of Dunzo’s Series E round, and the current fundraise is also part of this round.

According to the regulatory filings accessed by Inc42, Dunzo has allocated 4,998 Series E compulsory convertible preference shares (CCPS) to ten investors at a face value of INR 55 and a premium of INR 1,13,743.

Among these, eight investors — Hana Financial Investment, BHK Trading LLP, Willett Advisors LLC’s Binu J George, Chowdry Associates, Hans Tung, NPTK Emerging Asia Fund I, DS Spiceco Private Limited, Dharampal Satyapal — have invested close to INR 29.18 Cr in Dunzo in exchange for 2565 Series E shares.

The filings highlighting the sale of the rest 2,433 sales and investment from Beluga One Advisors as well as Evolvence India Fund III could not be accessed, but it amounts to another INR 28 Cr investment under the CCPS terms listed by the company for this round.

Inc42 did not receive a response from Dunzo on the fundraising till the time of publishing. The story will be updated with more details in case the company replies to our queries.

Till date, Dunzo has raised $128 Mn (INR 927 Cr, at current conversion rate) funding, with $45 Mn (INR 326 Cr) coming in from the Series D round raised in October 2019. The company is currently valued at $250 Mn (INR 1811 Cr).

Founded by Dalvir Suri, Mukund Jha, Kabeer Biswas and Ankur Aggarwal in 2015, Dunzo connects users with vendors which are usually grocery shops to facilitate the delivery of products. It also fulfils door-to-door courier services and on-demand deliveries of non-essential items as well. The company may soon introduce drone delivery as the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) allowed the company to start experiments last year.

Speaking at Inc42’s ‘Ask Me Anything’ webinar, Dunzo’s Biswas noted that the company noted an uptick in orders during the Covid-19 pandemic and became a ‘pipeline of the city’.  This helped Dunzo not only increase revenue but also create a loyal user base and reduce cost per delivery, the company had claimed.

Dunzo currently operates in Bengaluru, Delhi, Noida, Pune, Gurugram, parts of Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai. It had earlier claimed a repeat user rate of 80% and a transaction frequency of five orders per month per user.

In the financial year 2020, Dunzo reported an operating revenue of INR 27.5 Cr, with expenses spiking 2.13X to INR 359.5 Cr. The company reported a loss of INR 228.4 Cr. In the FY2019, the company said it had turned profitable in some cities. But overall, Dunzo posted a loss of INR 168.9 Cr for FY19. On the other hand, the revenue grew 3.5x reaching INR 3.5 Cr in FY19 from INR 77 Lakh in FY18.

It is important to note that while Dunzo started off as the only hyperlocal delivery platform, other mainstream players like Flipkart and Swiggy have entered the game as well. Last year, Flipkart launched “Flipkart Quick”  to deliver more than 2,000 products across several categories within 90 minutes. Even Myntra has introduced hyperlocal services to reduce their delivery time.