India delivery business Dunzo raises $240m

Lightbox Ventures, Lightrock India, 3L Capital, and Alteria Capital re-upped. It follows a USD 40m round in late 2020 that also featured Google, Moving Capital, Pivot Ventures, Evolvence India, Hana Financial Investment, and Bhoruka Finance.

Dunzo was launched as a hyperlocal delivery app in 2015 connecting counterparties across courier, e-commerce, and merchant logistics. In the past year, it has added a network of micro-fulfilment warehouses to the offering with a view to improving speed, quality, and reliability.

The warehouse network model focuses on fruits and vegetables and is said to facilitate deliveries within 15-20 minutes. Dunzo claims the service is growing at 20% a week. The fresh capital will be used to build out this capacity from a footprint of seven cities currently to 15.

Dunzo has also agreed a partnership whereby it will enable hyperlocal logistics for the retail stores operated by Reliance Retail. The start-up will also facilitate last-mile deliveries for JioMart’s merchant network. JioMart is Reliance’s e-commerce platform and the subject of a massive private equity-backed expansion agenda.

“We are seeing a shift in consumption patterns to online and have been highly impressed with how Dunzo has disrupted the space,” Isha Ambani, a director at Reliance Retail Ventures, said in a statement. “Dunzo is the pioneer of quick commerce in India and we want to support them in furthering their ambitions of becoming a prominent local commerce enabler in the country.”

A traditionally energy-focused conglomerate, Reliance Industries began investing heavily in its retail and telecom assets in the early 2010s as part of a group transition toward consumer tech. This included a significant build-out of Reliance Retail, its brick-and-mortar operator, and Jio Platforms, the owner of India’s leading mobile carrier.

Much of the plan revolves around networking unbranded mom-and-pop stores and Jio-branded convenience stores with the online JioMart platform. Inventory will be handled by Jio-owned warehouses. Investors including Google, Facebook, Silver Lake, General Atlantic, Intel Capital, Qualcomm India, and L Catterton Asia poured about USD 20bn into the concept in 2020.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Consumer
• Support services
• Expansion
• India
• Reliance Retail Ventures Limited
• Lightbox
• Alteria Capital
• Logistics
• e-commerce