Reliance Retail-Backed Dunzo Takes The ONDC Route

Quick commerce startup Dunzo announced on Thursday (August 3) that it has fully integrated its seller app with the Indian government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). 

The startup has integrated its B2B logistics vertical Dunzo For Business (D4B) with ONDC, enabling 1,500 local merchants to join the network within a week. Dunzo aims to onboard 20,000 merchants from food, grocery, pharmaceuticals, and other sectors in the next 45 days. 

“It’s been less than two weeks since we’ve been live on the network, and we’ve already hit peak order volumes of more than 3,000 a day for groceries and other essential items through our local merchants,” Dunzo’s cofounder Dalvir Suri told Business Standard. According to Suri, some merchants have already seen a 3X rise in their daily orders.  

The announcement comes a day after commerce minister Piyush Goyal met representatives of the ecommerce firms Flipkart, Amazon, Swiggy, Meesho, and Shiprocket. Reportedly, discussions were held about the issues faced by the sector and about a list of national policies for the segment, which the government is likely to announce soon.

Meanwhile, the integration with ONDC may give a much-needed revenue push to the company, which is already facing multiple challenges on the financial front. After closing a few dark stores last year, Dunzo fired nearly 3% of the workforce. However, to cope with the whole situation, it bagged $75 Mn through convertible notes. However, again ended up sacking 30% of its employees in April this year. 

Also, last month, Dunzo was reported to be seeking at least $20 Mn more cash from Reliance Retail, its largest shareholder. The startup has also failed to pay the salaries of its employees. It plans to release the salaries for June in September. Reportedly, the startup is again planning to take the retrenchment route and lay off about 200 employees.