Indian unicorn Udaan raises $280 Mn in additional financing

Founded in 2016, Udaan is currently one of the largest B2B eCommerce platforms in India. It has widespread operations across various categories including home & kitchen appliances, lifestyle, fruits and vegetables, FMCG, electronics, pharma, toys, and general merchandise.

The B2B e-commerce platform has raised $280 million in the additional financing round i.e., extended Series D round from new and existing investors. Octahedron Capital and Moonstone Capital are the two new investors who joined existing investors such as DST Global, Lightspeed venture partners, Tencent, GGV Capital, and Altimeter capital in the exercise. With this exercise, the overall funds raised by Udaan reaches $1.15 Billion. 

Udaan states that the additional funds will be utilized towards the expansion of the categories, products, and financial capabilities, improving the user experience, supply chain management, etc. 

Commenting on the development, Amod Malviya, Co-founder, Udaan said “Covid-19 has accelerated the already fast digital-led evolution of the highly fragmented and unorganized Indian trade/ retail industry. While at the same time, the pandemic also 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. 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. 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.”

Udaan became one of the fastest startups to achieve unicorn status. Udaan claims to have a network of 3 million+ users in 900 cities and 25,000 sellers across the country. As of September 2019, Udaan is valued at $7.5 billion.