Udaan targets ‘unique’ Indian e-commerce opportunity
Indian business-to-business e-commerce startup Udaan has raised $280 million.
The extension of its Series D round includes existing investors Tencent, Lightspeed Venture Partners, DST Global, GGV Capital and Altimeter Capital, along with newbies Octahedron Capital and Moonstone Capital.
The Bengaluru-based venture, founded in 2016, has now pulled in $1.15 billion in total funding.
The additional Series D cash will be used to expand the selection of products and categories available on Udaan, and also to enhance the firm’s technology platform, boost its SME financing capabilities and reinforce its supply chain infrastructure.
Amod Malviya, Co-founder, udaan, says: “Covid-19 has accelerated the already fast digital-led evolution of the highly fragmented and unorganised 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 neighbourhood stores becoming the lifeline of our country at a time of crisis.”
He adds: “udaan is at the forefront of this uniquely Indian e-commerce opportunity, emerging in the last four years as one of the largest e-commerce platforms in India, while taking an India-first mobile-first approach to e-commerce.”
“This financing enables us to further our journey of taking e-commerce to the depth and breadth of the country, with our unique low cost model for core middle India.”
