Udaan Amasses USD 585 Million In Series D Round

Udaan, a business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce platform, has recently raised funds in a fresh funding round. The three-year-old business has amassed capital to add more retailers and wholesalers, namely, chemists, grocery stores, and other small enterprises to its online platform. The e-commerce company has now raised USD 585 million in Series D funding round from a group of investors that include Tencent, Footpath Ventures, GGV Capital, Altimeter, Hillhouse and Citi Ventures. 

Existing investment companies, DST Global and Lightspeed Venture Partners, have also ploughed in the funding round, reported Tech Crunch. The latest round has valued the e-commerce start-up between USD 2.3-2.7 billion, an anonymous source who is privy to the matter told the media. The start-up had entered the Unicorn Club in the shortest time, in 26 months of registration, stated The Economic Times.

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Udaan administers an easy-to-use B2B online marketplace which bridges small retailers with wholesale traders. The digital platform renders a wide array of things, from home and kitchen to electronics. Furthermore, it provides credit loans to buyers, as well as sellers, in the form of working capital. The company has decided to employ funds, acquired in the funding round D, to fortify its foothold in India and expand product categories.

“We plan to get deeper into the food category this year and also explore adding other categories such as electrical and industrial equipment,” Vaibhav Gupta, co-founder of Udaan, said in an interview to Mint. For the last few months, Udaan was in discussions with various investment companies including Tiger Global Management and Soft Bank, but nothing happened, as stated by the cited media. The start-up will use the fresh capital to expand its supply chain network in the nation and focus on growing the marketplace in both existing and new categories.

It will also look to scale Udaan Capital, its credit line business, Sujeet Kumar, co-founder of Udaan, told Tech Crunch. The company has gathered over 3 million retailers, over 25,000 sellers from 900 towns as well as cities in India. It asserts to have received 5 million orders in August. At present, a wide spectrum of traders, encompassing small shopkeepers, restaurants, street vendors, chemists, and farmers are linked to the e-commerce start-up. It has formed a supply chain nexus across the nation to attain over half of its orders on the digital platform.   

B2B e-commerce companies are recently catching the attention of investors. So far, agri-tech firms Ninja Cart and Moglix have received investments from global investors. Ninja Cart, which links farmers to retailers, has received investment from Tiger Global and Moglix, an online marketplace for industrial commodities, received USD 60 million from Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global.