Crisis-hit Dunzo’s fortunes keep going from bad to worse.
Dunzo’s co-founder Dalvir Suri has quit the firm amidst a cash crunch at the hyperlocal delivery startup. Dunzo had been founded by Kabeer Biswas, Ankur Aggarwal, Dalvir Suri and Mukund Jha. CEO Kabeer Biswas holds 3.6% equity at the firm, while the other cofounders, including Dalvir Suri, only held ESOPs.
“As many of you are aware, Dalvir (Suri) has been taking some time off over the last few weeks, and will be moving on from Dunzo,” Dunzo CEO Kabeer Biswas told employees in an email. “Dalvir (Suri) has been instrumental in building out every new line of business at Dunzo. He has been the key zero to one person from the founding team that just gets things Dun. He has been meaning to take a break for sometime now – and with six plus years spent building Dunzo, he plans to move forward to pursuing new journeys,” the email added.
Dalvir Suri’s departure comes at a time when Dunzo has been staring at the brink. Dunzo had been unable to pay its June salaries to employees, which had been the first public sign of the troubles at the hyperlocal startup. The company had first said it would pay the salaries by September, and then said it would pay them in October. Dunzo has now laid off hundreds of employees, and told them they will receive their June salaries only by February next year. Dunzo has also been sent notices by its vendors over being unable to clear dues.
For its part, Dunzo has been doing its bit to cut costs. It has laid off hundreds of employees, and shut down nearly half of its dark stores. It’s also said it’ll move to a smaller office. Dunzo also reportedly aims to cut down its workforce from more than 1000 earlier in the year to just 200, which possibly means that there isn’t enough room for 4 co-founders.
Amidst all this, there might still be a ray of hope. There have been reports that Dunzo could be close to raising $30 million from its existing investors, which can help it stabilize its operations and prevent a complete implosion. It remains to be seen if this funding round actually materializes, but one of Dunzo’s four co-founders has already checked himself out of the ride.