DUNZO RELIANCE RETAIL

Reliance Retail, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, has begun testing the government's Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) through Fynd, an omnichannel retail platform in which Reliance holds an investment.

Delivers prepaid items from kirana stores; offers service in NCR, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Kolkata, Guwahati and Ludhiana

Happy Thursday! Ride-hailing platform Uber is strengthening its hyperlocal deliveries from neighbourhood stores. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.

While talks are still ongoing, complexities surrounding Dunzo's ownership structure have impeded the two parties from coming to an understanding over a deal, the report said.

Startups like Dunzo and Dealshare have seen their cofounders leave, while top executives like Byju's chief technology officer Anil Goel, chief business officer Prathyusha Agarwal, and Flipkart head of new business Adarsh Menon are among the top “fre...

While executives in the industry said that the public demand for quick commerce had been established, especially in urban and high-population-density areas, the key task in 2024 would be to improve profitability and experiment with various categorie...

However, Dunzo investors were not in favour due to strategic nature of Walmart-backed company.

An impasse after several rounds of discussions has left Dunzo’s other investors increasingly sceptical of its chances of survival in the absence of fresh funding soon, said multiple people briefed on the situation.

PhonePe was interested in acquiring the merchant network and quickly tapped into it for Pincode. It has been spending on customer acquisitions and discounts on the separate platform to acquire more users.

Reliance Retail, which is an investor in Dunzo, is yet to sign off on a much-needed capital infusion in the cash-strapped company. All about this and more, in today’s Morning Dispatch.

The Reliance Retail-backed firm, which has sharply shrunk its operations and laid off hundreds of employees over the course of this year, saw its total expenses jump to Rs 2,054.4 crore in FY23, against the Rs 531.7 crore in FY22.

This comes at a time when the Reliance Retail-backed firm has been struggling to manage its cash flow and has several dues pending towards vendors as well as staff salaries.

While a few of the existing investors have committed around $10-15 million in capital at the reduced valuation, the company’s board is yet to clear the proposal.

Dunzo founder Kabeer Biswas warns employees of further layoffs in case the cash flow situation worsens.

Dunzo has been struggling to close essential new financing as a difference in the scope of valuation between its investors has emerged as a roadblock, ET reported on August 22. Over the last eight months, the company has fired close to 400 employees.

Reliance Retail, the largest investor with 26% stake in Dunzo, is averse to the idea of slashing the valuation of the startup by nearly 50% in a fresh funding deal being stitched together by a set of existing investors.

This is the third round of layoffs at the Reliance Retail-backed firm, which is grappling with cash flow issues.

Dunzo is set to undertake another round of layoffs amid a funds crunch, co-founder and CTO Mukund Jha told employees in an all-hands meeting on Wednesday evening.

Dunzo has decided to reduce costs by 30-40%, which will involve more job cuts, even as it further delays payment of salaries.