Ato-do list a pp for your daily chores
Google-backedtaskfulfilmentstart-updunzorunserrandstomakemoney, reports Shameen Alauddin
Google-backed task fulfilment start-up dunzo runs errands to make money.
Twoyearsearlier, Shipra from Ben ga lu ru decided to work from home. However, she often find sit difficult to juggle between her work and running errands for home—picking vegetables, fruits and flowers from stores that don’ t deliver, clothes from a dry cleaner or sending couriers.
Last year, she started using dunzo. This is a personal concierge and delivery service that run san assortment of errands for users like her or fetches your mobile charger that you forgot at a friend’ s place. Initially launched on Whats A pp in 2015, dunzo now handles 3,500 - 4,000 tasks a day. Earlier this month, Google leda $12.3- million investment in the Bengaluru-based start-up. The round also saw participation from its early investors Asp ada Investments and B lu me Ventures. “The partnership with Google’ s Next Billion Users team perfectly compliments dunzo’ s vision of becoming a one stopfulfil men to fall local tasks for the existing and the next generation of internet users in India,” Aspada said in a statement.
Concept
In 2015, dun zora nb eta tests on Whats A pp tog aug et he demand of people wanting to hire people to run errands for them. The founders noticed high demand for people wanting get groceries delivered from offline stories or an item picked up from a friend’ s place.
Back then, co-founder Kabeer Biswas performed the to-do tasks for users on his personal scooter. “We learnt that for our user, what took up most time was the effort of travelling distances and searching for a particular product locally. Think of a to-do list, which completes itself. That’s dunzo for you,” says Biswas.
dunzo created a one-stop application to fulfil to-do tasks for offline purchases in India. It comes to rescue when you are pi led under a host of responsibilities and have little time. It performs up to 100,000 tasks each month and about 3,000 everyday.
Asked how it is different from Book My Chotu and Done Thing in Delhi, Chief Financial Officer Warner Queeny says ,“They rely on merchants, whereas we have 1,350 riders active for completing tasks.” The start-up claims to have logistically broken even in Ben ga lu ru, saying delivery charges cover the logistics costs per delivery.
Opportunity
The ideal market for the company would be any urban internet user .“We are targeting anyone in India who values their time and is willing to pay a small fee to get some of that time back from lower value tasks,” says Biswas.
As dunzo plans to push demand and on ground supply, it also envisages using the funding in mapping city-based centres through partnership with local merchants. It claims it is technological ly and manually equipped to be able to cater to the next 10 million customers in India, who might adopt dunzo in the next six to seven months. But, it is at ricky segment; several players in the concierge field have either shutdown or been sold off. Food delivery giants Z om a to and Swiggy have eaten a larger bite of the food-catering market in India. Some concierge services that are similar to dunzo have had a mixed fortune. Book My Chotu, for instance, saw high demand during the demo net is at ion drive last year. When bank AT Ms were running dry and people were forced to form long queues to withdraw cash, Book My C ho tue nab led hiring of people to stand inline on their behalf.
Revenue model
The start-up earns revenue by charging people on the task they wish to perform and the distance it would have to cover. It has tied up with multiple partners and merchants and has 1,350 riders for completing the tasks. In Bengaluru, the charges commence at ~45 for the first three kilo metres and ~15 per km then on ward. In Pune, where it launched next, the charges are margin ally lower —~25 for the first three km and ~10 a km after.
Ahead
“We look at the number of tasks completed each month as the primary milestone. We are very focused on our unit economics and want to make sure we are growing aggressively, while managing our margins,” says Biswas. The app was earlier only available in Ben ga lu ru; it recently extended services to Pu ne. The company is eye ing expanding into eight major cities, including Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata.