Cash-strapped quick-commerce startup Dunzo further delayed paying August salaries after having promised to clear them by the end of this week.
The founder and chief executive Kabeer Biswas on a video call with employees on Friday said that the pending salaries for August would be paid next Tuesday or Wednesday.
The Reliance Retail-backed firm had promised to clear all staff salaries for August by September 4. It had missed its earlier deadline too.
Moreover, the firm had said the pending salaries for June and July have been delayed further, without giving a future date for payment.
On August 31, Dunzo informed its employees that pending salaries from the months of June and July, which were also slated to be paid on September 4, would be delayed further, without giving an exact date.
The Bengaluru-based firm had first capped the salary of managers to ₹75,000 for June, which was to be paid in July.
Dunzo has fired close to 400 employees.
Bengaluru-headquartered Dunzo closed a $75 million financing round through convertible notes in April. The company had previously raised $240 million in equity funding in January 2022, led by Reliance Retail. Reliance Retail has a 25.8 per cent stake, while Google has about 20 per cent stake in the company. Cumulatively, the company has raised $457.6 million across 19 rounds of funding.
Dunzo is also reorganising its business model and will reportedly shut down 50 per cent of its dark stores. The company will explore delivery partnerships with supermarkets and other merchants.
The company also closed 20-30 per cent of its dark stores in Delhi-NCR and Hyderabad in late December 2022. Quick grocery delivery, or quick commerce, is generally defined as home delivery of groceries in 10-30 minutes.