- Indian startup Udaan achieves unicorn status.
- daan is a B2B trade platform in India that connects small and medium-sized businesses, traders, wholesalers, retailers, and manufacturers.
Udaan, India’s fastest-growing startup, has achieved unicorn status. Udaan is a B2B trade platform in India that connects small and medium-sized businesses, traders, wholesalers, retailers, and manufacturers on a single platform, disrupting offline distribution with its innovative B2B model. Udaan assists users in discovering and connecting groups of consumers, suppliers, and services in order to get the best deal. The system also facilitates online transactions and provides logistical support.
Founders Of Udaan
Hiveloop Technology Pvt. Ltd. manages Udaan. Sujeet Kumar, Amod Malviya, and Vaibhav Gupta founded it, with all three of India’s top Indian Institute of Technology engineers holding key positions at the Flipkart Online Services Pvt online retailer. Sujeet worked as a supply chain, operations, and executive logistics at Flipkart, while Amod was the CTO and Vaibhav was the senior VP. The Udaan trio, who were born in small towns in India’s Bihar and Uttar Pradesh states, claimed they had no access to expanding supermarkets or food chains. Large purchases necessitated a trip to a nearby large town. This inspired them to create the Udaan business model.
Udaan Operations
Udaan connects over 900 cities and three million retailers to 25,000 sellers in 200 cities. It provides supply chain, borrowing, payment, and sales services, allowing major manufacturers and distributors to supply these sellers. Udaan currently has operations in lifestyle, home, and kitchen, food, fruit and vegetables, FMCG, toys, and general merchandise. Currently, the platform assists SMEs such as small manufacturers, labels, mills, and farmers in selling their products across the country at a low cost.
Udaan also assists businesses such as Kirana store owners, street vendors, pharmacists, small factories, and contractors in purchasing high-quality low-cost items.
Funding
It is estimated that the Indian economy is driven by retail industry demand, which is expected to reach $3.6 trillion by 2020. The coordinated market, however, is only 10% to 12%. Udaan, an Indian private e-commerce platform, raised $585 million from investors including Tencent Holdings Ltd., Altimeter Capital, GGV Capital, and Citi Ventures. It raises $870 million the total capital raised since it was launched in 2016 valuing the company at nearly $2.8 billion.
Future Planning
In comparison to many other global economies, India has a highly decentralized retail and small business base, which contributes $800 billion to $1 trillion to its GDP. The ability to eliminate intermediaries’ access to large basket sizes and purchase repeatability makes the industry appealing for investment. After obtaining an NBFC license, Udaan began lending on its platform in November, assuming that local Kirana shops are historically limited to the regional wholesale market due to their inability to access credit elsewhere.
