Flipkart has hired Kabeer Biswas, co-founder of Indian delivery startup Dunzo, as the Walmart-owned e-commerce group expands its fast commerce business in the world’s most populous country. Biswas will lead Flipkart’s instant trading business, called Flipkart Minutes, a source familiar with the situation told TechCrunch. The move follows Flipkart engaging Biswas over a potential acquisition of the troubled startup last year, TechCrunch first reported. The talks fell through due to complications in the ownership structure of Dunzo, which counts Reliance Retail as one of its biggest backers. Reliance has all but written off Dunzo in the quarter since. The fast-paced commerce model – delivering goods to customers within 10 to 15 minutes – doesn’t work in many parts of the world, but it’s increasingly successful in India, where a variety of retailers and internet companies, from food delivery giant Swiggy to cosmetics platform online Nykaa, is preparing its supply chain ecosystem to accommodate faster delivery. Zomato-owned BlinkIt, Swiggy-owned Instamart and Nexus-powered Zepto currently lead the instant commerce market in India, but that hasn’t stopped other big players from joining the race. Flipkart launched Minutes last year. Amazon began piloting its fast-commerce offering in the country last month. Flipkart has aggressively expanded its e-commerce business, using it as a way to tap consumers in urban Indian cities, where Amazon has traditionally maintained a stronger grip. The Bengaluru-based company has set up more than 100 dark shops, warehouses located in residential complexes, and sells high-value electronics including laptops and smartphones, brokerage firm Jefferies wrote in a report this month. Dunzo – founded in 2014 – was one of the earliest startups to explore the instant commerce model. Also backed by Google, Blume Ventures and Lightbox, it has ambitions to boost the country’s e-commerce sector with half-hour delivery for shoppers. But the startup, which raised more than $500 million, failed to make inroads as competition increased. Biswas also explored other ventures in recent months with past team members, pitching various ideas to VCs, including Summit XV, according to people familiar with the discussions.
