Exclusive: Dunzo’s valuation crosses $300 Mn after fresh infusion

Hyperlocal delivery startup Dunzo has raised an additional Rs 58 crore or $8 million in its ongoing Series E round. This is the second funding tranche for the company in 2021. 

Dunzo has approved the allotment of Series E CCPS at a face value of Rs 55 with a premium of Rs 1,13,734 to raise Rs 58.04 crore, regulatory filings show.

Unlike in previous tranches where Dunzo raised investments from institutional investors, the majority of investors who participated in this round are individuals, partnership firms and alternative investment firms. A total of 13 investors have invested in this tranche led by Krishtal Advisors Pte Ltd which put in a little over Rs 5 crore followed by Ranjan Madhukar Patwardhan who has put in Rs 4.9 crore.

The rest has come from Mauryan Trusteeship Private Limited, Vijaya Holdings India LLP, Gautam Madan Bahal, Rich Ravi Agrawal, Ravi Purushottam Agrawal, Vikas Poddar, Amit Bipin Nanavati, and some others.

As per Fintrackr’s estimates, the company has been valued in the range of Rs 2,185 crore - Rs 2,225 crore or $301-$307 million in this tranche. 

The investment comes at a time when the company is planning to roll out its services to 25 cities. Currently, it operates in eight cities including Bengaluru, Mumbai and New Delhi. The Kabeer Biswas-led company also claimed that it doubled its annual active user base from 2.7 million in 2019 to 5.1 million in 2020 due to a surge in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the company had improved its financial performance in FY20 with revenue from operations growing 35X to Rs 27.5 crore, its losses were still huge at Rs 331 crore in FY20. On a unit level, Dunzo spent Rs 13.09 to earn a single rupee during the fiscal ended in March 2020.

On revenues, Dunzo said that it scaled from 600 merchants in March 2019 to 11,000 merchants in February 2021. According to the company, 80% of all commerce transactions on the platform are from its partnered merchants, on which it makes commissions on every order.

In the quick grocery and daily essentials delivery service, Dunzo’s competitors include BigBasket, Swiggy and Zomato. Zomato shut down its grocery marketplace service Zomato Market late last year and Swiggy replaced its marketplace Swiggy Stores with Instamart, a quick grocery delivery initiative that is serviced by cloud stores across cities.

Swiggy still offers its Genie service that directly competes with Dunzo’s core business. 

Since September, the Bengaluru-based company has raised $48 million in its Series E round. Google, Lightbox, Evolvence, Hana Financial Investment, LGT Lightstone Aspada and Alteria Capital are the other investors which have invested in the round.