Hyperlocal delivery platform Dunzo on Friday said it has raised $45 million (Rs 318.58 crore) in a fresh funding round from Lightbox, US-based growth equity firm 3L Capital, and South Korea's STIC Investment & STIC Ventures.
The company will use the funds to boost its platform by picking up and dropping almost anything and everything a consumer could want to buy and ship. The firm aims to integrate more merchants and delivery partners on the platform, it added.
Kabeer Biswas, chief executive officer and co-founder at Dunzo, said the firm has always focused on building a reliable business model while ensuring consumer empathy in every action.
“We are on course to building the largest commerce platform in the country with the most efficient logistics solution for each city,” he added.
Founded in 2015 by Kabeer Biswas, Ankur Aggarwal, Dalvir Suri and Mukund Jha, Dunzo is a chat-based task management app that allows users to create to-do lists. It fulfils tasks such as grocery and restaurant deliveries, instant local courier services and home services. It has presence in nine cities in India including Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune.
The platform uses both artificial intelligence and human operators to offer its services through a mobile app, which is available on both Android and iOS platforms.
Dave Leyrer, co-founder and managing partner at 3L, said the firm believe that the team at Dunzo has tapped into the backbone of the Indian economy - local offline merchants. We are eager to see how they change local commerce dynamics in India.
In May, the company raised funding from Kalpavriksh, the private equity arm of financial services firm Centrum.
In February, Dunzo raised $6.5 million (around Rs 46 crore) from a clutch of new and previous investors including Deep Kalra, the chairman and group chief executive officer of online travel services provider MakeMyTrip. It is also backed by Google, Blume Ventures and Alteria Capital.
