Reliance-backed Dunzo Daily’s Bengaluru operations hit as delivery staff protest

Dunzo Daily, the 20-minute delivery service, was still not available in many pockets of Bengaluru as of Thursday afternoon. A message on its app read: “Dunzo Daily will be back in a while.”

“Operations were severely hit for Dunzo Daily in the last two days after protests by delivery partners at Dunzo’s office premises in Bengaluru,” a person aware of the matter said. “It’s partially back up now in certain areas of Bengaluru,” this person added.

The company has started to push the ‘batching of orders’ — meaning one delivery person is assigned multiple orders to service on a single trip. Dunzo has also made internal tech changes to how orders are assigned to delivery partners and how they will be picked, leading to further friction with the company.

ET reported last month that
Dunzo would push for order batching to reduce delivery costs and is looking to curb its spending after a season of hyper-growth in the first six months of the year. It is also incentivising users to choose longer (60-minute) delivery options.

This comes at a time when other quick commerce platforms like Swiggy’s Instamart, Zepto and BB Now (BigBasket) are still operating across Bengaluru even though delivery timelines are longer due to the ongoing rains and flooding in part of the city. Dunzo’s delivery timelines through its ‘local stores’ service have also been affected. “You can still order from nearby local stores,” read its message to users in areas where Dunzo Daily is not operating.

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An email sent to Dunzo didn’t elicit an immediate response on Thursday afternoon.

Dunzo, which was known for its pick-up and drop service, made its entry into quick commerce around the time it
was finalising a Reliance Retail-led $240 million funding in January.

ET reported last month that
Dunzo had a monthly burn of over Rs 100 crore or around $15 million during the June quarter and in July, according to an internal presentation and people briefed on the matter.

It is planning to reduce its burn and has paused plans to expand to more cities. It continues to be in talks with various investors for a new round of funding and has engaged an investment bank, Morgan Stanley, for this.