Cash-strapped fast commerce startup Dunzo has further delayed August salary payments after promising to settle them by the end of the week.
The pending August salaries will be paid next Tuesday or Wednesday, founder and CEO Kabeer Biswas said in a video call with employees on Friday.
The Reliance Retail-backed company had promised to settle the August salaries of all employees by September 4. It also missed previous deadlines.
- Also read: Dunzo: Bengaluru dark store employees stop work, demand July wages
In addition, the company said that outstanding wages for June and July have been further postponed, but did not give a future payment date.
On August 31, Dunzo notified employees that outstanding wages for June and July, originally scheduled to be paid on September 4, would be further postponed, without giving a specific date.
The Bengaluru-based company first capped managers’ salaries at Rs 75,000 for June, which will be paid in July.
Dunzo has laid off nearly 400 employees.
- Also read: Google-backed Dunzo defers wages by 50% for some employees
Bengaluru-based Dunzo had raised $75 million through convertible notes in April. The company had previously raised $240 million in equity funding in January 2022, led by Reliance Retail. Reliance Retail owns 25.8% of the company, while Google owns around 20%. The company has raised a total of $457.6 million through 19 rounds of financing.
Dunzo is also restructuring its business model and will reportedly close 50% of its dark stores. The company will explore delivery partnerships with supermarkets and other merchants.
The company also closed 20-30% of its dark stores in Delhi-NCR and Hyderabad in late December 2022. Express grocery delivery or express commerce is generally defined as delivering groceries to your doorstep within 10-30 minutes.
