Troubled quick commerce start-up Dunzo’s head of finance, Sudharshan N, has quit the start-up, as it struggles with cash flow issues and delay in paying salaries. According to Sudharshan’s LinkedIn profile, he is leaving the company after a year-long stint.
The departure comes at a time when Dunzo has been struggling financially, and has been looking to raise capital from investors. Recently, Dunzo was looking to raise $35 million, reported businessline.
Apart from Sudharshan, Dunzo co-founder Dalvir Suri has also quit the company, and another co-founder, Mukund Jha, was in the process of leaving the start-up.
The company has also understaken mass layoffs in the past one year, and has deferred the salary payment for June and July to January-February 2024.
The hyperlocal delivery firm said it will pay an interest of 12 per cent per annum on the service period, said the Bengaluru-based firm in an e-mail to employees. Former employees will only receive their full and final (F&F) settlement in January or February of 2024. It will also include August and September salaries for the days served by the employees.
Meanwhile, the company is said to have opted for payroll financing company OneTap to pay slaries.
dark stores
The start-up has drastically reduced the scale of its quick commerce operations to conserve cash over the past year. It does not run its own dark stores now, but offers services through third-party grocery stores. The company has shut down dark stores. It has planned to give up its office space in Bengaluru and even fired hundreds of employees across three rounds of lay-offs.
Since 2015, Dunzo has raised close to $500 million from Reliance, Google, Lightrock, Lightbox, Blume Ventures, and several others. Reliance is the largest shareholder with a 25.8 per cent stake in the company, according to Tracxn.