Tech giant Google announced that it was taking a small stake in a Bengaluru-based daily task management app called Dunzo. This is the first direct investment in an Indian startup by Google. Dunzo is receiving the $12 investment as a part of Google’s Next Billion Users (NBU) commitment.

Dunzo had earlier raised $ 1.5 million from Aspada Investments. In a linkedinPulse post, Sahil Kini of Aspada Investments described the deal

We’re really proud of the Kabeer and the entire dunzo team for what they have achieved so far. Aspada was one of the first beta testers of dunzo. Our firm was a user when it was just Kabeer, a scooter, and a WhatsApp group! To us, this is what the essence of our job is all about. To find exceptional entrepreneurs at the embryonic stage and work with them throughout their growth story. It’s really gratifying to see that belief validated by an international major like Google. The fact that it is only their seventh direct investment from the corporate entity, makes it all the more sweeter. We welcome them to the dunzo family and look forward to working with them going forward.

NBU is google’s plan to create an engineering team dedicated to Southeast Asia that aims to serve its users in the region. The initiative recognizes that the “next billion users” will virtually all be on mobile.Google recognizes unique challenges for web developers who must abandon the limited mobile first approach in favor of a comprehensive mobile strategy. This means the applications need to be designed to address challenges by focusing a few key areas including

Design for seamless connectivity

Conserve data usage

Reduce battery consumption

Optimize for device capability

Plan for localization

Dunzo ‘s app platform allows users to create to-do lists and gets a wide variety of tasks and chores done such as laundry, grocery shopping, home maintenance, picking up food etc. Their website claims “We run errands to free up your day, because there’s much to do and such little time. Be it pickup-drop, shopping or fixing something, you can dunzo it all!” It was funded in 2015 by Ankur Aggarwal, Dalvir Suri, Mukund Jha and Kabeer Biswas handles around 3,500-4,000 tasks a day.