Bengaluru-based Dunzo app raises fresh $45 mn from Google and others

Dunzo on Friday said it raised 45 million dollars -- translating to roughly Rs 319 crore -- in a fresh round of funding from Lightbox, Google, 3L Capital, and STIC Investment & STIC Ventures. Dunzo is a local delivery service provider headquartered in Bengaluru. With the latest round of funding, Dunzo is now valued at around 200 million dollars. Dunzo has raised a total of 81 million dollars.

"Dunzo will deploy the funds to establish itself as the logistics layer for India, picking up and dropping almost anything and everything a consumer could want to buy and ship while integrating merchants and delivery partners on the platform," a statement said.

'Dunzo's 40X growth in the last 18 months'

This round of investment stems from Dunzo's 40X growth in the last 18 months and a business model that focuses on unit profitability, it said, adding that the Bengaluru-headquartered firm is clocking in more than 2 million deliveries month on month.

"Over the last year, we have built a model that understands Indian cities deeply and empowers offline commerce to deliver to consumers instantly. We believe in giving local merchants a fighting chance while creating sustainable earning opportunities for delivery partners," Dunzo CEO and co-founder Kabeer Biswas said.

Swiggy Go: Swiggy's instant pick-up and drop delivery service launched

He added that the company is on course to build the largest commerce platform in the country with the most efficient logistics solution for each city. Founded in 2015 by Kabeer Biswas, Mukund Jha, Dalvir Suri and Ankur Aggarwal, Dunzo connects merchants, partners, and users to facilitate transactions across courier, commerce, and commute.

Dunzo is available in select areas like Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, and Pune. It also has bike taxi services in Gurugram, Hyderabad, and Noida.

Last month, a Bengaluru-based food delivery app Swiggy announced the launch of Swiggy Go, the company's instant pick-up and drop delivery service. Swiggy Go will not be limited to food delivery. It can be used to deliver documents, parcels to clients, from one place to the other. Swiggy had said Swiggy go will give the company's existing delivery partners access to an additional option to generate income.

(With PTI inputs)