Dunzo delays payments to employees by another few days

Bengaluru-based Dunzo

Dunzo, the quick-commerce startup that had promised to begin paying employees from September 4, has delayed payments for certain number of employees yet again.

Last week Moneycontrol had reported that Dunzo bought more time and pushed out the payment schedules by another month for former employees. It had, however, promised that current employees would receive their August salaries on September 4 but has now said it will be paying salaries in batches.

"Due to certain procedural requirements, we have to do this batch-wise. It may take an additional day or two for us to facilitate this transfer for everyone," Dunzo told employees in an email on September 4. Moneycontrol has reviewed a copy of the email.

"Team members whose salary has been processed will receive an email confirmation. Rest assured you will receive your August 2023 salary within this week without fail," the email added.

The commitment was likely because Dunzo was expecting funds to come through sometime in September. "We have made positive progress on funding and aim to close procedural requirements in September. In the meantime, we wanted to clear August salaries as per the committed timeline. We are confident that there will be no further delays..." Dunzo said in the same email to current employees last week.

Dunzo's need for funds was urgent. The company has been slapped with legal notices from over seven companies and vendors that amount to over Rs 11 crore, Moneycontrol had reported earlier. Before the money comes through, Dunzo has already undertaken three rounds of layoffs over the past year eliminating over 500 jobs, across three rounds of layoffs in just eight months in an attempt to cut costs.

Dunzo has so far raised close to $500 million since 2015 from Reliance, Google, Lightrock, Lightbox, Blume Ventures and several others. Reliance is the largest shareholder with a 25.8 percent stake in the company, and Google was the second-largest with around 19 percent ownership in Dunzo, according to Tracxn, a private markets data provider.

Disclaimer: Moneycontrol is a part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.