Mukund Jha, Dunzo's Co-Founder, In Talks To Raise Rs 50-80 Crore For Gen AI Venture: Report

Mukund Jha, the co-founder and former CTO of Dunzo, is in talks to raise between Rs 50-Rs 80 crore (around $6-10 million) from Together Fund for his latest Gen AI project.

This fundraising effort comes after Jha left the financially troubled hyperlocal delivery company Dunzo in October 2023.

Source : Dunzo/X

Mukund Jha, the co-founder and former CTO of Dunzo, is in talks to raise between Rs 50-Rs 80 crore (around $6-10 million) from Together Fund for his latest Gen AI project, says a report by Moneycontrol. Jha's new venture is centered on developing a generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) company focused on automating quality assurance (QA) processes for businesses. This initiative aims to enhance the QA process by creating and running tests, detecting errors, and offering feedback to ensure that products adhere to quality standards, the report added.

Jha has also been in discussions with Y Combinator, though the outcome of these talks is not yet known. He brings significant expertise to his new venture, having previously worked at Google in New York and co-founded companies such as Wisdom.ly, a group video platform for virtual meetups, and Habet, an intelligent goal-tracking platform.

"Jha is building a generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) company and also wants to automate a lot of the quality assurance (QA) that companies do – think of it like an overlap of AI and SaaS,” the report added, citing a source aware of the development.

This fundraising effort comes after Jha left the financially troubled hyperlocal delivery company Dunzo in October 2023. Dunzo, which Jha co-founded and led from 2015 to 2023, continues to face significant funding and operational hurdles. Despite support from Reliance Retail, Dunzo has struggled to compete with rivals such as Zepto, Swiggy, and BlinkIt.

The startup, which has raised about $500 million, has had difficulty attracting additional investment and maintaining payroll. In February, there were rumors that Flipkart might acquire the platform, but no progress has been reported since.

Together Fund, launched in 2021 by Freshworks’ Girish Mathrubootham, Eka Software’s Manav Garg, and Shubham Gupta (formerly of Matrix Partners India), announced its second fund of $150 million in 2023. The fund has invested in more than 20 companies, including DhiWise, SpendFlo, SecureDen, and TopLyne, focusing on horizontal SaaS applications, vertical SaaS in healthcare, and emerging areas like cloud for connected devices. It is India's first operator-led venture capital firm, established to support the country's SaaS entrepreneurs.