Mumbai, NFAPost: Google backed Dunzo is looking to raise as much as $200-250 million at a valuation of close to $800 million. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-controlled Jio is in talks with Dunzo to finalize the financial investment, alongside with the start-up’s current investors.
With participation in its new (probably Series F) round, Jio is likely to pitch the valuation of the Bengaluru-based start-up to $800 million.
Founded by Dalvir Suri, Mukund Jha, Kabeer Biswas and Ankur Aggarwal in 2015, Dunzo connects consumers with stores and vendors in their vicinity and facilitates deliveries of products such as grocery, medicines, food and other everyday items.
Currently, Reliance’s portfolio of startup acquisitions includes epharmacy startup Netmeds, drone startup Asteria, deeptech startup Tesseract, business search platform JustDial, online furniture startup Urban Ladder, logistics startup Grab A Grub, edtech Embibe, among others.
The investment could also mark another step in Reliance’s super app ambition under the Jio brands in which the company aims to partner with third-party applications in different verticals, similar to what other Indian conglomerates have tried.
In September 2020, Dunzo raised $28 milliion in its Series E funding round led by global tech giant Google and investment firm Lightstone. The company’s existing investors Lightbox, 3 L Capital, Moving Capital, Pivot Ventures, and Bhoruka Finance Corporation, participated in that round. The Google-backed startup also raised another Rs 60 crore funds from 10 investors in February 2021.
Dunzo’s revenue jumped 1.6x to nearly $6 million in the financial year ended 2021 compared with the previous year. The company also reduced its annual losses by 43% in FYE 2021. The company raised $40 million in its series E round from Google, Lightbox, and Evolvence, among others.
In FY20, Dunzo reported operating revenue of Rs 27.5 crore, with expenses spiking by over 2x to Rs 359.5 crore. The company reported a loss of Rs 228.4 crore for the same year. In FY21, Dunzo claims to have sold around Rs 590 crore in gross merchandise on its platform, a 1.6X growth compared to Rs 360 crore worth of gross merchandise sold in FY20.
