On-demand grocery delivery platform Dunzo said, “one of its co-founders will leave the startup.” Mukund Jha is reportedly to exit the Dunzo, making him the second co-founder to depart within a week. Before this, Dalvir Suri left the company. It is said that this step has been taken after considering the company’s poor position in the market. According to the reports, the company has struggled to strike a funding deal in the past few months and announced three layoffs.
Reliance-industries backed startup also announced an organisation-wide restructuring for this quarter. However, the company did not give further details on the restructuring. Mukund’s exit comes at a time when the company is in the middle of fundraising and is lining the process of capital to the tune of $25-30 million to keep its operations ongoing.
On Mukund’s resignation, the company insider said, “he has stepped back from daily operations, and the formal announcement is about to be made in the upcoming weeks.” However, the company has already informed some employees about his exit.
Dunzo claims that “Mukund remains an integral part of Dunzo’s leadership team. While we are restructuring the organisation with new leaders driving key mandates, Mukund will continue to be an important part of the strategic leadership team guiding and directing Dunzo’s future roadmap”.
Now, CEO Kabeer Biswas, Siddharth Talwar from Lightbox and Hongjim Kim from STIC Investments remain on the board. As per the reports, Jha and Suri, along with Ankur Aggarwal, have no ownership in Dunzo, withdrew salaries, and had ESOPs (Employee Stock Ownership Plans) like several other employees, which Dunzo have delayed several times.
At this time, Dunzo co-founder and CEO Biswas owns about 3.6 per cent of Dunzo, the only co-founder with the stakes. To raise the money, the company has massively cut costs by shutting down dark stores and layoff over 500 employees.
The company has raised $500 million since 2015 from the companies like Reliance, one of the most significant stakeholders with 25.8 per cent, Google (second-largest with 19 per cent), Lightbox, Blume Ventures and many others.
