Dunzo partners with OneTap to ensure August salary payments amid challenges

Bengaluru-based Dunzo

Cash-strapped Dunzo has partnered with OneTap, an RBI-registered NBFC, to pay August salaries to employees as funding talks continue to make little progress for the quick-commerce startup.

OneTap is operated by Capital Trade Links Limited (CTL) which is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). It offers business loans, loan against property, vehicle loans, personal loans and others.

CTL is associated with large banks like State Bank of India (SBI) and has associated fintech ventures with partners like CredIN, Salary Dost, AFG Business, Mahila Money, among others, as per the company's website.

Dunzo's decision to partner with OneTap comes after it has missed several deadlines in the past and has failed to pay employees their salary for August. Along with that, Dunzo is also yet to clear the portion of salaries it held-back dues from June and July.

Moneycontrol had earlier reported that the Bengaluru-based company had promised to pay employees in batches from September 4, but had delayed payments again.

"Please be assured that this partnership is between Dunzo and OneTap, and hence, all repayment liability rests solely with Dunzo. For team members, this will be treated as a regular salary credit with no interest or repayment obligations," Dunzo's email to employees said on September 13. Moneycontrol has seen a copy of the email.

Since Dunzo has missed several deadlines, it has also promised to pay employees a 12 percent annual interest on salaries, as reported earlier. The optimism was because Dunzo was expecting to raise money but the timeline remains unclear.

"While we expect to receive funds soon, this partnership helps expedite salary disbursement for August. This solution has been carefully vetted by our team before making it available to you," the email to employees added.

In the same email, Dunzo said employees can expect to receive salaries by September 14 or September 15 at the latest as the processes are being put in place.

Even if Dunzo begins clearing dues by Friday, it has other payments to make and  needs to raise money to meet its working capital requirements. The company has also been slapped with legal notices from over seven companies and vendors and has to pay over Rs 11 crore in total, Moneycontrol had reported earlier.

Dunzo has so far raised close to $500 million since 2015 from Reliance Retail, 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.