udaan is now valued at over $3 billion.

udaan, the Indian business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce platform, has scored a solid funding round of $280 million. The investment valued it at $3 billion, post-money.

It raised the funds from existing investors that included Chinese internet giant Tencent (HKG: 0700), and venture funds Lightspeed Venture Partners, DST Global, GGV Capital, and Altimeter Capital. Two new investors, Octahedron Capital and Moonstone Capital, also participated in the funding. (THE TIMES OF INDIA)

The latest financing is an extension of its Series D round that pulled in $585 million in October 2019.

udaan has now raised $1.15 billion of capital on a cumulative basis.

Use of funds

Former Flipkart executives Sujeet Kumar, Amod Malviya, and Vaibhav Gupta founded the four-year-old startup.

udaan is now processing a monthly gross merchandise value (GMV) of around $200 million, Kumar told TOI.

It will use the latest funding to further boost its growth trajectory and to invest in technology.

The startup will face competition from other online behemoths in the B2B ring. These include Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Flipkart, now owned by Walmart (NYSE: WMT), and Reliance (NSE: RELIANCE).

However, Kumar is confident, revealing that udaan was already enjoying growth with improving margins. He said its GMV had surpassed pre-COVID-19 levels “sometime back.”

The startup claims it is India’s largest b2b eCommerce platform.

In a statement, udaan said it will focus investment in the expansion of its range of products and categories, furthering user experience, enhancing its technology platform, expanding its SME financing capabilities, and the reinforcement of its supply-chain infrastructure.

Currently, udaan features lifestyle, electronics, home & kitchen, staples, fruits and vegetables, FMCG, pharma, toys, and general merchandise products on its platform.

Udaan: India-first, mobile-first

“The pandemic highlighted the unique structure of the Indian economy, with millions of kiranas and neighborhood stores becoming the lifeline of our country at the time of crisis,” said Malviya. “udaan is at the forefront of this uniquely Indian eCommerce opportunity, emerging in the last 4 years as one of the largest eCommerce platforms in India while taking an India-first mobile-first approach to eCommerce.”

‘Kiranas’ is an Indian term for mom-and-pop stores. They typically sell groceries and sundry items required for daily consumption or use.

“This financing enables us to further our journey of taking eCommerce to the depth and breadth of the country, with udaan’s unique low-cost model for core middle India,” Malviya added.

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