Hyperlocal delivery startup Dunzo in talks to raise $50M: Report

Hyperlocal delivery startup Dunzo is in late stages of talks to raise approximately $50 million in a new financing round.

Existing backers, including Reliance Retail and Google, are among those discussing investment in the new round, according to TechCrunch.

YourStory could not independently verify the development.

Earlier, in January, the hyperlocal delivery firm laid off 3% of its workforce months after raising Rs 50 crore in debt from Blacksoil.

To optimise costs, the company recently shut some of its dark stores across India. Its competitor Blinkit had also said it would scale down some of its dark stores.

The funding round comes at a time when young firms are struggling to secure fresh capital. As the global economy continues to weaken, delivery startups—known for their high cash burn rate—are facing greater challenges in securing new financing rounds.

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According to The Economic Times, Dunzo has been seeking to raise capital for a number of months with the goal of securing at least $70 million, and possibly as much as $150 million.

It was Google's first direct investment in an Indian startup, infusing $12 million as part of Google's Next Billion Users initiative, with its early investors Blume Ventures and Aspada Ventures also participating in the round.

Dunzo began as a WhatsApp group in 2014 where founders sometimes ran errands themselves to deliver products to group members on demand.

Reliance—which is also an investor in Dunzo—last month shut down JioMart Express, which relied on Dunzo for the last-mile delivery and used other delivery-based services.