Dunzo’s unravelling: A timeline of events

To say that Dunzo has had an eventful few months is stating the obvious.

A startup that rapidly attained stratospheric heights, became a synonym for hyperlocal delivery, and the envy of startup founders everywhere, is now struggling to survive. The fall was rapid.

It would have been unimaginable even a year ago, when Dunzo raised over $240 million (~$490 million in total) from marquee investors such as Reliance Retail, Google, and Lightbox, that the nine-year-old startup would face the capital crunch it is tackling currently.

Founded in 2015 by Kabeer Biswas, Ankur Aggarwal, and Mukund Jha, Dunzo started out as a pick-up and drop service, before venturing into the quick commerce space with 19-minute grocery delivery. However, high cash burn and rising competition in the hyperlocal grocery delivery space have led Dunzo to reevaluate its options.

The Bengaluru-based firm is now in talks with investors for fresh infusion of capital, which could help lengthen its runway, after laying off more than half of its total workforce so far. Moreover, Dunzo’s focus has now shifted to business-to-business logistics, which is expected to make up the majority of its business going forward.

Here’s a timeline capturing the events that led to Dunzo’s woes, after a promising start.

(Lead image and graphic by Winona Laisram)