Udaan– Company Profile

One of India’s fastest growing Unicorn, Udaan is an online B2B trading platform, especially created for specific needs and requirements of small & medium enterprises (SMEs). The company was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Bengaluru. Udaan provides a common platform where traders, wholesalers, retailers and manufacturers can easily buy and sell a wide variety of products.

Users can find new buyers and sellers across the country and get the best rates on various products. Udaan also provides the convenience of secure digital payments and logistical support. Everything can be managed via Udaan app, so traders do not need to invest in any additional assets such as computers or billing software. Going by the rate at which it is growing annually, Udaan is on its way to getting the tag of ‘India’s Alibaba’.

History:

The idea for Udaan came to its founders when they noticed that a significant chunk of B2B trade was still conducted the traditional way. While e-commerce companies were investing billions of dollars for B2C portals, there was no such option for B2B players. Udaan founders and ex-Flipkart executives, Amod Malviya, Vaibhav Gupta, and Sujeet Kumar, realized that SMEs lacked the power of internet. To bridge this gap, the founders launched Udaan in 2016. To keep things simple, the Udaan platform was made available through a smartphone app.

As of now, Udaan has 1,50,000+ buyers and sellers across most states and UTs in the country. More than 3 million retailers across 900 cities are currently using Udaan platform. Udaan provides logistics support in multiple cities including Tier II and Tier III cities. Online B2B trade forms just a fraction of the overall B2B trade, so there’s huge potential to be unlocked. Udaan is growing at a fast pace and is currently valued at around $2.8 billion.

Funding:

Investors are seeing a lot of potential in Udaan, which is why money is pouring in for the company from various sources. Top investors include DST Global, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Citi Ventures, Footpath Ventures, GGV Capital, Hillhouse Capital, Altimeter Capital and Tencent. Total investments are around $870 million.

Acquisitions:

Udaan has not made any acquisitions till now, but is open to bankable opportunities that may be available in the future.

Competitors:

Udaan competes with other B2B trading platforms such as BigTrade, TradeKosh, Indiamart, and TradeIndia.

About the Founders:

Udaan was founded by Flipkart top executives – Amod Malviya, Vaibhav Gupta, and Sujeet Kumar. A unique thing about Udaan is that the company does not have a CEO. The founders believe in decentralization of power and decision making, which is why they have chosen not to have a CEO. They are of the opinion that giving power to a single person creates more problems than it solves. The founders believe in teamwork and decisions are taken based on meaningful discussions with all stakeholders.