Tata Digital was planning to make investments in Dunzo is on a halt because the hyperlocal startup doesn’t want to give up majority control in the startup. The plans got stuck at a time when Tata-owned BigBasket and other e-commerce players are starting to prioritize making deliveries within 10-30 minutes.
Dunzo is an important player in the field with an annualized gross merchandise value or GMV at $200 million. Dunzo likes the idea of Tata becoming the single largest shareholder but it doesn’t want Tata to take up the majority control. This may be because Dunzo remains the only startup left with experience to carry out deliveries in less than 30 minutes. Tata Group is very adamant on the quick commerce space which is also seeing interest from other similar e-commerce and online grocery platforms like Flipkart, Amazon India, Swiggy, Grofers, and the like.
Dunzo is hoping to raise $100 million to $120 million at an expected valuation in the range of $500-$600 million. The company has not said an adamant no to the Tatas and is still looking for the best possible deal they can get without having to give up full control of the company.
Tata had earlier acquired BigBasket and 1mg in a similar situation.
Dunzo is likely to be in talks with BigBasket to accelerate their express deliveries. They are already in a partnership where Dunzo uses BigBasket’s dark stores for its Daily service.
Dunzo has launched Dunzo Daily across Bengaluru from different stores in the city as well as the BigBasket dark stores. Dunzo was already taking only 19 minutes to complete 75% of its deliveries. With its Dunzo Daily, it expects to deliver a select range of 2,000 products in less than 20 minutes. This is what BigBasket and Dunzo are discussing now and whether they can help each other out when there is a competition to make deliveries in the shortest possible time to consumers.
