Global search engine giant Google has picked up a minority stake in Bengaluru-based hyperlocal and delivery startup Dunzo. Google will lead a $10-12 million round in Dunzo, which will also see the participation of existing investors Blume Ventures and Aspada, according to a report in Economic Times.
This is Google’s first direct investment in an Indian startup and the announcement was made as part of Google’s Next Billion Users (NBU) push.
Kabeer Biswas, CEO of Dunzo confimed the investment to The News Minute adding, “We are delighted to partner with Google. We believe the future of local search is to fulfill. We hope to learn from them, while making cities easier to live in.”
Founded in 2015 by Ankur Aggarwal, Dalvir Suri, Mukund Jha and Kabeer Biswas, Dunzo is a hyperlocal app – initially launched on WhatsApp -- which runs various errands for users such as picking up things, something you forgot somewhere, picking up food from a restaurant and more. It currently handles 3,500-4,000 tasks a day and looks to scale it up to one lakh tasks by the end of next year. It has employed 1350 riders across Bengaluru.
Interestingly, Dunzo is one of the only hyper-local startups that have survived. Several others such as Grofers, Genie, and Local Banya failed at this model. Dunzo, on the other hand has not only survived but has reached a break even in Bengaluru.
A few others to have also survived the game are Delhi-NCR-based BookMyChotu and DoneThing.
In March last year, Dunzo raised $65,000 in a pre-Series A round of funding led by Aspada Investment Advisors and Blume Ventures, reports VCCircle. The round also saw participation from Google India’s managing director Rajan Anandan and Just Dial’s chief technology officer Sandipan Chattopadhyay. Dunzo reported a turnover of Rs 98.5 lakh in the financial year 2016-17.