Bengaluru-based on-demand concierge service startup Dunzo said Wednesday it has raised a total of USD 11 million in venture debt from Alteria Capital to fund its growth in profitable markets.
In a statement, Dunzo’s CEO and co-founder Kabeer Biswas said the company has always focused on building a sustainable business model that makes the company profitable in different markets it is present in.
“Profitability has always been the barometer of success and we’re seeing it manifest across several of our micro-markets. As we deploy this playbook into other cities, we’re extremely conscious of what our consumers want,” Biswas said.
Late last year, Dunzo raised USD 45 million from Google, Lightbox Ventures, STIC Investment, STIC Ventures, and 3L Capital in a new financing round. Dunzo is one of the first direct investments by Google in any Indian company.
Co-founded in 2015 by Kabeer Biswas, Mukund Jha, Dalvir Suri, and Ankur Aggarwal, Dunzo operates as a personal assistant to users who ask Dunzo’s delivery agents to do an array of tasks ranging from delivering standard items such as grocery and food, to paying utility bills, sending packages from one destination to another, among other things.
It partners with stores, retail chains, medicine shops, among other businesses to help it standardize delivery of products. The company is currently present in Bengaluru, Delhi, Gurgaon, Pune, Chennai, and Hyderabad.
“Our aim is to keep building exceptional customer experiences for our merchants, delivery partners, and users with the most efficient logistics solution in the world. In this journey, as markets turn profitable, we are able to fuel our growth with debt while having a significantly higher return on investment for customers and stakeholders,” said Biswas.
The popularity of on-demand hyperlocal services has increased in Indian metro cities. Last year food delivery major Swiggy launched two products Swiggy Stores and Swiggy Go to compete with Dunzo. While Swiggy Stores lists several shops and retail chains for its users to order specific products that are listed on the app, with Swiggy Go users can assign any task to the company such as picking up a lunch box or a forgotten product at home and deliver it to any desired destination.
Swiggy recently raised USD 113 million led by South African telecom giant Naspers to expand its offering in the last-mile hyperlocal delivery space.