Mumbai: The Bengaluru bench of the National Company Law Tribunal has dismissed an insolvency petition against e-commerce delivery startup Dunzo Digital Pvt. Ltd.
The insolvency court was hearing an insolvency petition filed last year by one of the company’s financial creditors—called Invoice Discounters of Dunzo Digital Pvt Ltd—for non-payment of dues.
On Tuesday, an NCLT bench led by Justices Sunil Kumar Aggarwal and Radha Krishna Sreepada held that the insolvency petition was not maintainable and dismissed it. The bench had earlier deferred its verdict on the matter citing its inability to finalise a written order.
The decision is significant as some of Dunzo’s vendors including Google India and Facebook India and other creditors including Betterplace Safety Solutions and Velvin Packaging have filed insolvency petitions against the debt-laden e-commerce platform.
According to an order dated 29 May 2024, Dunzo and its financial creditor Invoice Discounters of Dunzo Digital had sought time before the court stating that settlement talks were underway. The bench had directed that if the two parties couldn’t reach a settlement, Dunzo was to file its reply to the insolvency petition within two weeks.
During a later hearing, Invoice Discounters informed NCLT that the settlement talks had failed, following which the tribunal forfeited Dunzo’s right to file its reply in the matter.
Also read | Dunzo could have been a Zepto. So why did it fail?
Dunzo’s dues
The bankruptcy tribunal has pulled up the Bengaluru-based Dunzo on multiple occasions for failing to reach a settlement with its lenders.
Dunzo owes Betterplace Safety Solutions about ₹4 crore, and Velvin Packaging about ₹2.5 crore, according to reports. Dunzo also owes about ₹11.4 crore to advertising partners and vendors, including Google India, Facebook India and Glance.
Last year, Lightbox, a venture capital firm that held about a 11.1% stake in Dunzo gave up its board seat at the company.
In January this year, Dunzo’s co-founder and former chief executive Kabeer Biswas stepped down from his position to join e-commerce marketplace Flipkart.
