The Success Story of Dunzo

A normal day in our lives has been revolutionized with the arrival of online delivery services. The fatigue and inconvenience of leaving our houses to purchase items for our daily uses are steadily paving its way to becoming a thing of the past with the technologies adopted by the online delivery services all set to bring more relaxation and freedom in our everyday lives. 

 

Although India has no dearth of platforms providing delivery of items like food and grocery, the primary issue lies in the inconvenience of having to explore and look out for the apps that perfectly fit our requirements. Often with the varying requirements of the customers being scattered across different stores, accommodating it all in a single trip becomes a struggle, particularly in the present COVID19 pandemic era where venturing outside has become a risk that needs to be avoided unless absolutely necessary. Imagine how favorable it would be if all these requirements could be accommodated within a single platform? 

 

This right here is where the hyperlocal delivery startup Dunzo steps in. This is an online firm that delivers groceries, food, and various kinds of commodities. 

 

 

About Dunzo

 

The term Dunzo is primarily a slang abbreviation that implies done, finished. This name was selected by the startup owing to their focus on finishing or delegating the work which is assigned to them by their customers. The name denotes that any task which the customer wishes to complete or wants to deliver from one location to another can be executed by Dunzo. The primary idea behind the company’s brand focuses on being swift, dependable, and valiant. 

 

Dunzo is a hyper-local on-demand delivery service startup in India. The delivery firm delivers all commodities required by the user on their demand having a minimum charge for delivery. For instance, if the user wishes to purchase a t-shirt they glimpsed at the mall and are unable to get it themselves Dunzo can be approached to aid in doing the same.

 

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The platform additionally has tie-ups with various restaurants, clothing stores, as well as various general stores. It presently operates in Bengaluru, Noida, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Hyderabad, and Mumbai.  

 

Dunzo provides all commodities on one platform be it grocery items, pet supplies, health and wellness, bike rides, laundry delivery, pick and drop services and a range of other services.

 

 

Dunzo Founders

 

The founder of Dunzo as well as the one who initiated the concept behind the platform is Kabeer Biswas. At the age of 28, the man took the initiative to save the time of the public and introduced the concept of the Dunzo platform. A graduate in engineering from Mumbai University as well as alumni of Narsee Monjee Institute of Management in Mumbai, Kabeer is also the founder of Hoppr, a platform that was later on sold to Hike Messenger. Along with this, he has also worked for Airtel from 2007 to 2010 in the sales and production department.  

 

One co-founder of Dunzo is Ankur Agarwal, an IIT Roorkee graduate in computer science. The other co-founder of the platform is Mukund Jha who worked together with Ankur at Google. The two also initiated an HR tech firm called Filter.

 

The platform’s fourth co-founder is Dalvir Suri, a Mumbai University graduate. He worked at IBM and was also the operations and delivery head at Cybrilla Technologies. 

 

How Dunzo came to be

 

It all began when Kabeer Biswas, the founder of the platform shifted to Bengaluru and decided to experiment with a fresh business concept that operated as a to-do list that executed and wrapped up the task on its own. This was the primary concept behind Dunzo. Making his small duplex room the platform’s headquarters, he began to publicize the idea around to his friends. It began as a mere Whatsapp group in which the delivery services were properly communicated and executed. This was followed by Kabeer himself taking up the task of running errands and completing tasks for the customers on bikes and undertaking deliveries. 

 

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In order to aid him in his task, he hired some part-time employees and volunteers people from an NGO on a part-time basis. In the year of 2015, the Dunzo team executed 70 orders per day which prompted the popularity of the platform. Owing to the surge in demand in 2016, the originally Whatsapp-based platform was converted into an app, with all the platform’s co-founders combining to make it a prominent success.  

 

 

Dunzo Investors

 

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The leading investors of Dunzo

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Dunzo has till date raised $140 million and aims to tap investors for roughly another $150 million in 2021.

 

On 1st September 2020, the platform it raised $28 million as part of its ongoing Series E funding round headed by Google and Lightstone Fund.

 

In the month of January, 2021, the platform Dunzo raised $40 million in Series E funding led by Google, Lightbox, Evolvence, Hana Financial Investment, LGT Lightstone Aspada, and Alteria, among others.

 

Dunzo’s leading investors include Google, Blume Ventures, Aspada Investment, Alteria Capital, LGT Lightstone, 3L Capital, Moving Capital, Lightbox, and STIC Ventures. 

 

 

Dunzo’s recent growth

 

The COVID19 pandemic has been crucial for Dunzo, with the platform attempting to use them to its advantage. The nationwide lockdown imposed owing to the pandemic has been chaotic for the delivery firm, as well as everyone who has a stake in it. As per a Your Story article, the platform’s founder Kabeer revealed that Dunzo doubled its annual sales in 2020.  The platform has also unleashed various access points to assist the users in accessing the platform. 

 

In order to make the operations smoother for its merchants, the platform also cut down commissions for its frequently used products. Essaying the role of the bridge joining the stuck-at-home customers and the merchants who are eager to sell items for their livelihood merchants, the lockdown helped drive Dunzo’s growth. As reported by Entrakr, Dunzo has additionally been infusing in its B2B business in which it authorizes logistics for hyperlocal retailers. The platform has also been experimenting with dark stores to aid local retailers in executing consumer orders swiftly. Presently 10 such stores are operated in Bengaluru, Chennai, as well as Pune.

 

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The platform has recently launched a new dark store - Dunzo Daily in Bengaluru city where it will stock up its own inventory of FMCG items, groceries, meat and medicine. 

 

The platform presently has a user retention rate of 80 percent and executes each task within 20 to 25 minutes, equipped with an average basket size of Rs 500. 

 

The platform has also started offering 15-minute deliveries for a range of 2,000 commonly sought-after items.

 

The platform aims to double the amount of capital it has raised so far for expanding its reach across the nation and emerge as a $1 billion revenue business in the upcoming two years.

 

 

Conclusion 

 

As of yet, Dunzo has been a prominent success in the cities where it is functioning. The platform has essayed an eminent role in making the routine tasks of its customers easier and more conducive. Ahead in the foreseeable future, the firm plans to enhance the product searches on its app by collaborating with various vendors and merchants. The platform wishes to extend its physical retail store presence on its mobile app in order to enhance its product search. It is also attempting to extend its presence in varying tier two cities. In the present technology-driven world, Dunzo has the scope of expanding and becoming a leading online delivery service platform.