Dunzo lays off more employees amid cash crunch

Quick commerce platform Dunzo on Friday informed its employees about fresh layoffs in an  ‘all hands’ meeting, according to sources aware of the development. This is the third time the company has given pink slips to its employees during 2023.

While the company did not disclose the number of employees impacted by the latest layoffs, sources indicate that at least 20-25% employees will get pink slips from the company.

In April, the startup fired around 30% of its workforces which impacted nearly 300 people in April. Including this round of layoff, Dunzo has let go of over 400 employees this year. This started in January when the firm had announced letting go of 3% of its workforce, citing efforts to build efficiency into its teams.

As per media reports, the Reliance Retail-backed firm has resorted to layoffs owing to cash flow issues. The new layoffs are part of plans to cut costs by 30-40%.

On Thursday, media reports suggested that Dunzo received notices from Google, Facebook and Nilenso over unpaid dues. Meanwhile, several employees at the company have alleged that Dunzo hasn’t filed tax deducted at source (TDS) for their employees for the last 6 months.

A few days back, the platform decided to postpone 50% of the salary for certain employees at manager-level positions and above, as per media reports. The company, however, missed the last deadline and delayed the salaries of several employees by another 40-45 days to September 4.

Queries sent to Dunzo did not elicit an immediate response. We’ll update the post in case they do. 

While the company is yet to disclose its financials for FY23, it recorded Rs 54.3 crore in revenue from operations in FY22 from Rs 25.1 crore in FY21. As per Fintrackr’s analysis, the company’s losses also deepened at a similar pace to Rs 464 crore in FY22 against Rs 229 crore in the previous year.

Dunzo has raised around $475 million to date from the likes of Reliance, Google, Lightbox and Blume Ventures among others.