Kabeer Biswas, co-founder of Dunzo, the hyperlocal delivery startup, is likely to join Flipkart Minutes as head of operations, the quick commerce arm of Walmart-owned Flipkart, three sources privy to the developments told Moneycontrol. This will be Biswas’ second innings in the rapid delivery space after starting and scaling up Dunzo for over a decade.
The development comes just days after Moneycontrol first reported that Biswas, the last standing co-founder, is quitting Dunzo, the company he founded in 2014, as the company struggles to keep operations afloat in an increasingly competitive industry.
The company has made Biswas an offer and if talks go through, he will join as head of Flipkart Minutes “soon”, one of the persons cited above told Moneycontrol. The decision to rope in Biswas also comes months after Google participated in Flipkart’s $950 million fundraise by pumping in $350 million into the company at a valuation of $36 billion, as reported by Moneycontrol in May.
That fund infusion meant Google was then a common investor in both, Dunzo and Flipkart. While the tech titan owns roughly 1 percent in Flipkart, it roughly has a 19 percent stake in Dunzo.
Biswas heading Flipkart Minutes is likely to give the Walmart-owned company an edge over other quick commerce majors, such as Zomato-owned Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, Zepto, Tata BigBasket and more, as he has cut his professional teeth in the sector for over a decade, even before rapid delivery emerged as a hot sector only a few months ago.
This is especially crucial since Flipkart Minutes went live only in August 2024, several months later than the others, indicating that it has some ground to make up.
Biswas is likely to work closely with Hemant Badri, senior vice president (SVP) at Flipkart. Moneycontrol was first to report that Badri was given additional charge as head of Flipkart's quick commerce foray back in April 2022.
Badri has been with Flipkart for over three years and is the head of supply chain at the e-commerce major.
Flipkart and Biswas did not immediately respond to Moneycontrol's request for comments. The story will be updated if they respond.
ALSO READ: Dunzo’s fall from grace: From a first-mover in 2014 to struggle for survival in 2023
Biswas is moving on from Dunzo at a time when the company has massively scaled down in size and is struggling to keep operations afloat.
The company had even engaged with Swiggy and BigBasket for a potential buy out but the talks did not materialise.
Dunzo started back in 2014 as a WhatsApp group but went on to raise over $400 million from the likes of Reliance, Google, Blume Ventures, Lightrock and several others. While it grew into a formidable hyperlocal player that competed with Swiggy Instamart, Tata BigBasket and Zomato-owned Blinkit, excessive cash burn and an intensifying competitive landscape took a toll on the company.
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