Dunzo to provide pending salary payment timeline for former employees by Jan 31

Cash-strapped delivery startup Dunzo is working on a long-term business plan to clear liabilities and repay pending salaries, it told former employees in an email on Friday evening.

The Reliance Retail-backed firm had told former employees in October last year that salaries for June and July along with final settlements would be paid by February 2024. The payout will include an interest of 12% per annum based on the employee's service period.

Dunzo will now provide a payment timeline by January 31 while it chalks out a solution over the next couple of weeks, the company said in the email.

YourStory has seen a copy of the email.

"As you would recall, Dunzo has always been a transparent organisation and has operated with the absolute best intent for its team members. It is unfortunate that we haven't been able to meet our financial commitments due to unforeseen business and external funding situations in the recent past. We are extremely sorry for this," the email noted.

YourStory has reached out to Dunzo for a comment on the development. The story will be updated once the response comes in.

In December, several of Dunzo's partner stores including Easy Bazar and MK Retail went offline temporarily as the company delayed payments of grocery orders. They returned online in the same week after the dues were cleared.

The on-demand delivery platform has delayed salary payments several times in the past, noting that it is gearing up to raise additional funding to fulfil payment obligations.

In September, Dunzo partnered with payroll financing company OneTap to disburse salaries for existing employees for the month of August.

Earlier in August, YourStory had reported that Dunzo was scaling down its quick commerce operations under Dunzo Daily massively to cut down cash-burning propositions and focus on more lucrative verticals. A Dunzo spokesperson later confirmed that the company is in the process of moving to a partner store format.

Following the closure of most of its dark stores across major cities, including Bengaluru, the firm partnered with a host of offline retail stores such as MK Retail, Easy Bazar, Pristine Supermarket, and Deepa Retail to service quick commerce orders.

Dunzo Co-founder Dalvir Suri stepped down from his role in October. Suri played a key role in introducing new lines of businesses, including Dunzo Merchant Services (DMS).