Exclusive: Google-backed on-demand delivery app Dunzo raises venture debt

Bengaluru-based daily tasks management app Dunzo, run by Dunzo Digital Pvt. Ltd, has raised Rs 7 crore ($962,500 at current exchange rates) from venture debt firm Alteria Capital.

According to the company’s filings with the Registrar of Companies, it raised this sum early this month by issuing secured non-convertible debentures.

The firm will use the capital for general corporate purposes and to expand its services, the filings stated.

Alteria Capital and Dunzo declined to comment on the development.

The company last raised funding in December 2017. It secured $12. 3 million (Rs 80.8 crore) in a Series B funding round led by global technology giant Google at a post-money valuation of $30 million. The deal also marked Google’s first direct investment into an Indian company.

Prior to that, it raised $650,000 (around Rs 4.4 crore then) in a pre-Series A round of funding led by Aspada Investment Advisors and Blume Ventures in March 2016. Prominent angel investors including Google India managing director Rajan Anandan and former Just Dial executives Sandipan Chattopadhyay and Rajesh Dembla had also put in money into the firm.

Dunzo

Founded in 2015 by Biswas, Ankur Aggarwal, Dalvir Suri and Mukund Jha, Dunzo is a chat-based task management app that allows users to create to-do lists. It fulfills tasks such as grocery and restaurant deliveries, instant local courier services and home services.

The platform uses both artificial intelligence and human operators to offer its services.

The app is available as Dunzo on the Google Play Store and the App Store. Its Android app installs alone has seen more than 10 lakh downloads, as per information on its Google Play store page.

For the financial year 2016-17, Dunzo’s turnover rose to Rs 98.5 lakh from Rs 71,000 in the previous financial year. Expenses widened to Rs 11. 79 crore, up from Rs 2.08 crore in the previous year, primarily driven by a rise in employee and other expenses.

Consequently, net losses widened to Rs 10.75 crore, up from Rs 2.13 crore the previous year.

Alteria Capital’s recent investments

The venture debt firm was founded last year by Vinod Murali and Ajay Hattangdi, who were former top executives at InnoVen Capital.

The fund has made at least six known deals so far, including the one into Dunzo. Its other bets include celebrity fashion firm Universal Sportsbiz Pvt. Ltd, ed-tech firm Toppr, cold-pressed juice maker RAW Pressery, dockless scooter sharing platform Vogo and ready-to-cook food startup Fingerlix.