Exclusive: Dunzo kicks off Series E round with $28 Mn from Google and others

Hyperlocal logistics startup Dunzo has raised $28 million in a new funding round led by Google and Lightstone. The fresh funding has come after a $45 million Series D round in October 2019 and it is the first tranche of the company’s ongoing Series E round.

While Google LLC and Lightstone have already infused $15.65 million, the remaining amount would come from five existing investors, regulatory filings show. 

This round comes at a time when competition in the hyperlocal delivery segment has intensified with Naspers-backed Swiggy launching 45-minutes grocery delivery via Instamart. The fresh capital infusion will help Dunzo to keep in the race of high capital burn segment with competitors like Swiggy, Zomato, BigBasket and Shadowfax among others.

Last month, Entrackr had exclusively reported about Dunzo’s fundraise. 

Dunzo has allotted 10,310 Series E CCPS to Google LLC and Lightstone at Rs 1,13,811.63 per share and has received Rs 117.5 crore or $15.66 million, reveals filings. Lightbox, 3 L Capital, Moving Capital, Pivot Ventures and Bhoruka Finance Corporation will collectively pump in $12.34 million in coming weeks. Formed in partnership with Aspada and LGT, LGT Lightstone Aspada is India focused impact investment platform of LGT Lightstone. 

As per Fintrackr’s estimates, the Bengaluru-based firm has been valued at around $245 million in the fresh round.

Unlike FY19, Dunzo’s unit economics improved drastically in the last fiscal as the company’s operating revenue grew 4.25X to Rs 71.56 crore from Rs 16.83 crore in FY19. Importantly, these numbers are based on projections submitted by Dunzo for FY20 as part of their regulatory filings and actual figures will be revealed later this year.

Its annualized total expenditure during the fiscal ending March 2020 amounted to Rs 407.6 crore, ballooning 2.3X from Rs 178.3 crore in FY19. 

Of late, Dunzo has also been investing in its B2B business where it enables logistics for hyperlocal retailers. It’s also experimenting with dark stores to help local retailers fulfil customer orders quickly. At present, it runs 10 such stores in Bengaluru, Chennai, and Pune.

Dunzo has around 75,000 stores on the platform and the number of deliveries from FY19 to FY20 have grown 2.5-3X. The company was serving about 2.5 million deliveries before March, but Covid-19 pandemic impacted the volume by 25%.