Deep Kalra joins Dunzo's long tail Series C round with Rs 3 Cr investment

Google-backed task management cum last mile delivery startup Dunzo is creating a buzz as marquee investors are joining the company's long-awaited Series C round.

After Google, Blume Venture and recent investments by Milestone Trusteeship Services, N Lakshmi Narayanan, Monika Garware Modi, and Raintree Family, Dunzo has roped in Deep Kalra, founder and group CEO of MakeMyTrip as its investors in the ongoing round.

According to the company's latest RoC filing, Deep Kalra, on behalf of Prudent Advisors, invested Rs 3 crore in the firm via 567 Series C CCPS priced at Rs 52,927.2 each.

The filing first accessed by paper.vc also mentioned that Parthasarthi Reddy Bandi on behalf of Krishna Sindhuri Trust invested Rs 7 crore 1,323 shares of same class and price.

The investment also ends Kalra's three and half years hiatus of infusing risk capital in Indian startups. According to data available on Crunchbase, last he had invested in Scripbox, Touchtalent, and Zovi.

As expected Dunzo is raising a larger round in the range of $25-30 million that may close anytime soon. The capital will be primarily used for Dunzo's expansion plan.

Currently live in Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Gurugram, Delhi, and Chennai, Dunzo is all set to foray into Jaipur and Mumbai.

Dunzo had projected around 2.5 million transaction volume by December 2018 and 20 million transactions by 2020.

The company has been scaling up in Bengaluru and Gurugram and challenging grocery delivery players like Bigbasket by grabbing a significant chunk of the pie. However, Swiggy latest bet via Swiggy Store is going to be another hurdle for Dunzo as far as food, grocery, and daily essentials delivery is concerned.

Dunzo has raised a little over $18 million across funding rounds, while its competitors Swiggy and Bigbasket have raised around $1.5 billion and $900 million respectively.