Reliance Retail Writes Off INR 1,645 Cr Investment In Dunzo

SUMMARY

The conglomerate’s 78,923 equity shares of Dunzo, internally pegged at INR 1,645 Cr in FY24, were valued at nil in FY25

The write-off comes three years after Reliance led a $240 Mn round in Dunzo in January 2022

Reliance Jio also said that its “actively researching and developing” 6G technology to augment its existing terrestrial networks

Retail giant Reliance Retail has officially written off its entire investment in defunct hyperlocal delivery startup Dunzo.

According to Reliance Industries Ltd’s (RIL) FY25 annual report, the conglomerate’s 78,923 equity shares of Dunzo, internally pegged at INR 1,645 Cr in FY24, were valued at nil during the fiscal year under review. The now-shut startup clocked INR 1 Cr in operating revenue in FY25, the report said.

This comes over seven months after Inc42 exclusively reported in January that Reliance Retail, the largest shareholder in the hyperlocal startup, wrote off its $200 Mn investment in it. In the same month, Dunzo cofounder and CEO Kabeer Biswas stepped down from his role and joined Flipkart’s quick commerce venture Minutes.

The write-off comes three years after Reliance led a $240 Mn round in Dunzo in January 2022. At the time, the investment was billed as Reliance Retail’s bid to enter the quick commerce race.

The deal was also supposed to enable hyperlocal logistics for Reliance Retail’s outlets and strengthen the conglomerate’s omnichannel capabilities. Not just this, Dunzo was also expected to help JioMart’s network of merchants with last-mile delivery.

At the time of Dunzo’s demise, Reliance Retail owned a 26% stake in it. Google India and Lightbox held 19.3% and 10% stake in the startup, respectively.

How Dunzo Met Its End

Founded in 2014 by Biswas, Ankur Aggarwal, Dalvir Suri and Mukund Jha, Dunzo operated a platform that initially focussed on pick-and-drop services and later expanded to delivering groceries.

Despite many firsts to its credit and having raised nearly $450 Mn over its lifetime, Dunzo’s story hit a speed break last year after it emerged that the company was burning millions of dollars without the revenue pipeline of rivals like Blinkit, Instamart and Zepto.

Dunzo’s consolidated net loss widened 4X YoY to INR 1,801 Cr in FY23, while total revenue rose 3X YoY to INR 67.7 Cr.

As funding dried up, the startup tried multiple pivots but none succeeded. Subsequently, it found it difficult to sustain operations and was even struggling to find a buyer. Eventually, the startup shut operations.

Reliance’s AI & 6G Push

In the annual report, RIL also projected that AI would drive “incremental multi-decade growth”. As part of its AI push, the company reiterated that it is developing an AI service platform, under the brand name JioBrain, to offer a suite of tools and platforms for enterprises.

“Jio will leverage its expertise in infrastructure, networking, operations, software and data, and collaborate with its global partners to enable (the) world’s lowest AI inferencing cost in India to make AI available Everywhere for Everyone,” the company said.

RIL added that the AI platform is already being piloted by its telecom arm Reliance Jio for network planning and maintenance, resource optimisation and customer services.

On the deeptech front, the conglomerate claimed that its digital arm Jio Platforms has filed over 3,341 patents to date, including 1,654 patents in FY25.

“Jio Platforms and its subsidiaries were granted 154 patents in FY25. As of March 31, 2025, Jio held 485 patents, establishing itself as one of India’s largest patent holders, particularly in 5G and 6G technologies,” added the report.

Reliance Jio also claims to be “actively researching and developing” 6G technology to augment its existing terrestrial networks.