Another Dunzo Co-Founder To Exit The Company (Image: x.com/@DunzoCare)
Dunzo could see the company’s co-founder Mukund Jha’s exit from the startup. Mukund Jha, who is not only the co-founder, but also the chief technology officer (CTO) would be leaving the startup in a week, the moneycontrol reported as insiders said. This move comes after the news of resignation of co-founder Dalvir Suri.
Dunzo’s co-founders – Mukund Jha, Dalvir Suri and Ankur Aggarwal do not have any ownership in Dunzo. Both Dalvir Suri and Mukund Jha had joined Dunzo in 2015, a company which delivers items from grocery, meat to medicines. Mukund Jha had a key role role in communicating to staff about delayed salaries and on other matters of the company.
Some employees of the company are in the know about Jha’s exit, the moneycontrol said. Jha has stepped off from the day-to-day operations of Dunzo. A formal announcement on this is expected very soon during the coming weeks.
The company has denied on this matter of Mukund Jha’s exit and has said, “Mukund remains an integral part of Dunzo’s leadership team. While we are restructuring the org 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.”
The news publication The Morning Context, has also reported that Jha had resigned from Dunzo’s board on September 1. The news also reported that many other figures of the company, Suri, Vaidhehi Ravindran from Lightrock and Reliance Retail”s Rajendra Kamath and Ashwin Khasgiwala have already exited the board in August. The board now has only CEO Biswas, Siddharth Talwar from Lightbox and Hongjim Kim from STIC Investments remaining.
Jha has no ownership in the company and drew only salary and ESOP (employee stock ownership plans) like the other employees of the company. Like Jha, Suri and their co-founder Ankur Aggarwal also drew only salary and ESOPs and do not own any stake in the company. In the past, Dunzo has delayed salaries several times.
Dunzo’s co-founder and CEO Kabeer Biswas has an ownership of about 3.6 percent in the company; he is the only co-founder who has a stake in the company. The company is currently raising funds to the tune of $25-30 million in order to keep matters afloat. Reliance is likely to increase its stake in the company, moneycontrol said. While the fundraising is on way, there are large scale cost cuts undertaken in the company along with letting go of employees, almost over 500 employees.
Since 2015, the company had raised near to $500 million from Reliance, Google, Lightrock, Lightbox, Blume Ventures and others companies. Reliance has a stake of 25.8 percent in the company, making it the largest shareholder of the company. Google has the second largest stake with 19 percent, Tracxn data providers said.
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