Indian Delivery Startup Dunzo Notches $45M

Dunzo, an Indian delivery service that differentiates itself with fast delivery times and a business model that delivers practically anything, has raised $45 million in a Series D funding round, according to a report by TechCrunch.

Google, Lightbox Ventures, STIC Investment, STIC Ventures and 3L Capital all participated in the round, which values the company at around $200 million. So far, Dunzo has raised $81 million.

The company was started four years ago and it focuses on hyper-local deliveries of a slew of items like pet products, groceries, medicine, perishables and food. Dunzo will pick up and drop off almost anything you ask it to as well.

If a customer forgot something somewhere, Dunzo will pick it up and deliver it, and usually within a half hour. It’s also affordable, with most deliveries costing in the neighborhood of $1.

The company is operational in eight cities in India — Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi, Noida, Pune, Gurgaon, Powai and Hyderabad.

The company said it’s going to use the new capital for expansion and to develop partnerships with some smaller mom-and-pop businesses in the country.

It’s estimated that eCommerce makes up less than 3 percent of all retail sales in the country, as neighborhood outlets and smaller stores drive most sales.

“We are on course to building the largest commerce platform in the country with the most efficient logistics solution for each city,” said Kabeer Biswas, co-founder and CEO of Dunzo.

Dunzo has recently branched out to smartphone delivery, with users getting new phones in half an hour, as opposed to a day or two with other services like Amazon or Flipkart. The company is looking into a similar type of partnership with Puma.

Dunzo is small in comparison to delivery giants like Swiggy and Zomato, which process about 3 million orders in a day. Right now, Dunzo processes about 2 million a month, but that’s up from only 50,000 last year.