Personal task management startup Dunzo raises $12 M in funding from Google
Bengaluru-based Dunzo, whose app helps in daily tasks management, has raised $12 million in funding from Google. The deal has been done under Google’s Next Billion Users (NBU) push. Existing backers Blume Ventures and Aspada have also participated in the funding round.
Dunzo was founded by Ankur Aggarwal, Dalvir Suri, Mukund Jha and Kabeer Biswas in 2015 with an aim to solve the deep local discovery and fulfillment problem. With a chat-based interface, Dunzo allows individuals to create ‘To do lists’ and collaborate with partners (vendors) to strike off the tasks from the list. The app is available as dunzo on the Google Play Store and dunzoit on the App Store.
The startup had raised $650,000 from Blume Ventures and Aspada Investments and $ 1.5 million in late 2016.
Sahil Kini of Aspada Investments took to social media confirming the news. In a Linkedin Post he said, “ Just last week, the Next Billion Users unit of Google Inc. decided they wanted to be a part of the dunzo story and led the Series B fundraise. We couldn't have asked for a more capable and wonderful co-investor on this journey and are confident that they will be the rocket-fuel that dunzo has rightfully earned.
We're really proud of Kabeer and the entire dunzo team for what they have achieved so far. Aspada was one of the first beta testers of dunzo.”
Adding, he continued, “ It's really gratifying to see that belief validated by an international major like Google. The fact that it is only their seventh direct investment from the corporate entity makes it all the more sweet. We welcome them to the dunzo family and look forward to working with them going forward.After all, it's about time the other cities of the world experienced the pleasure of dunzo-ing all your to-dos away!”
The mobile concierge and chat-based commerce space has seen a lot of interest globally as well as in India. Facebook’s virtual assistant for Messenger ‘M’ is an interesting player in this space.
There is also Zirtual, which provides startups and large enterprises a dedicated virtual assistant for a monthly subscription fee. In India, GetMyPeon provides errand-running and same-day delivery service in Mumbai. The startup raised $250,000 in seed funding in 2015.