Task management app Dunzo to raise money from existing investors

Dunzo Digital Pvt, Ltd, which runs daily tasks management app Dunzo, is raising more money from existing investors Google and Blume Ventures as part of a fresh funding round.

According to the company’s filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Bengaluru-based Dunzo will raise Rs 44.09 crore (around $6 million at current exchange rates) from tech giant Google, venture capital firm Blume and venture debt provider Alteria Capital.

TechCircle reported last week that Dunzo had already received Rs 7 crore from Alteria. Its latest filings indicate that Blume has contributed Rs 2 crore. The biggest chunk — Rs 35.09 crore ($4.83 million) — will likely come from Google. 

The fresh capital will be used for general corporate purposes and expansion needs of the company, the filings revealed.

A spokesperson for Dunzo declined to comment while e-mail queries sent to Google India and Blume seeking more information did not elicit a response at the time of publishing this report.

Earlier on Tuesday, The Economic Times had reported that Dunzo was in advanced talks to raise $25 million (Rs 181.33 crore) from Google and others in an extended capital-raising initiative.

VCCircle had previously reported that Dunzo’s last major fundraising activity took place in December last year, when it had raised $12.3 million (Rs 80.8 crore) in a Series B funding round led by Google.

The deal, which valued Dunzo at $30 million post-money, marked Google’s first direct investment in an Indian startup. Google’s parent firm Alphabet Inc separately invests in Indian startups via CapitalG, its growth equity fund. 

Dunzo had in March 2016 raised $650,000 (around Rs 4.4 crore then) in a pre-Series A round of funding led by Aspada Investment Advisors and Blume. Prominent angel investors including Google India managing director Rajan Anandan and Just Dial’s chief technology officer Sandipan Chattopadhyay had also participated in that funding round.

Dunzo

Founded in 2015 by Kabeer 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 three-year-old startup offers its services through a mobile app, which is available on both Android and iOS platforms. As part of the features offered, Dunzo enables users to create multiple tasks and track them simultaneously.

The Dunzo app has been downloaded by more than 10 lakh users on Android, as per information on its Google Play store page. Dunzo is currently operational in Pune, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Delhi and Chennai.

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 increased 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. Dunzo is yet to file its financials for 2017-18.