How Dunzo Makes Money

Dunzo earned money in two ways. First, delivery and service fees: customers paid distance-based fees for pick-up-and-drop errands (Dunzo Genie-style tasks) and for orders from partner stores, and merchants paid per-delivery fees for B2B last-mile delivery. Second, from 2021, product sales through Dunzo Daily, its dark-store quick-commerce service. By FY23, sale of traded goods brought in about $16.4 million (₹141 crore), roughly 62% of the ~$26.3 million (₹226.6 crore) operating revenue (Entrackr). The dark-store model needed warehouses, inventory and rider subsidies, and per-order costs stayed far above what customers paid. Dunzo closed almost all of its dark stores in 2023.

Dunzo's strategy moved through three stages. From 2014 to 2020 it grew as a "deliver anything" errand app in Bengaluru, then other metros. In 2021 it launched Dunzo Daily, a 15-to-20-minute grocery service run from company dark stores, and in 2022 it raised Reliance Retail's money partly to support JioMart deliveries. In 2023, out of cash, it closed most dark stores and focused on its partner-store marketplace and B2B logistics, but could not raise enough to keep running.