B2B Platform Udaan Raises $585 Mn in Funding led by Tencent at Valuation of $2.5 Bn

Bengaluru-based B2B Business-to-business (B2B) platform Udaan has raised $585 million from Tencent, Altimeter, Footpath Ventures, Hillhouse, GGV Capital, and Citi Ventures, reported Business Standard. Udaan's existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and DST Global also contributed to the round.

Citing founder of deal tracker Paper.vc, the Business Standard report states that, Tencent led the Series D financing round, by contributing roughly a quarter of the total raise, giving the firm a “post-money valuation in the range of $2.5 billion"..

With this fresh funding, Udaan raised a total of $870 million to date. Last year in February, in one of the largest early-stage startup funding round in India, Udaan raised $50 million in its series-B round of funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner.

Founded in 2016, by former Flipkart executives Amod Malviya, Sujeet Kumar, and Vaibhav Gupta, Udaan has operations in categories such as lifestyle, electronics, home and kitchen, staples, fruits and vegetables, fast-moving consumer goods, toys, and general merchandise.

In a statement, Martin Lau, president of Tencent, said,"Udaan’s unique approach could enhance the capabilities of millions of retail stores." Tencent last invested in July this year, when the Chinese investor contributed in $100 million funding round of Indian OTT platform and a global offline video player, MX Player.

"Empowering millions of small businesses to effectively procure and sell goods is not only a massive business opportunity, but will also help transform the economy by providing internet-scale productivity gains to merchants, wholesalers, and manufacturers," said Brad Gerstner, founder and CEO of Altimeter Capital, and Ram Parameswaran, partner at Altimeter Capital.

In Largest Series-B Startup Funding, Ex-Flipkart Executives' Udaan Raises $50 Mn Via Lightspeed, Yuri Milner

Bengaluru-based B2B e-commerce marketplace Udaan has raised $50 million (~ ₹320 crore) in its series-B round of funding which marked as one of the largest early-startup funding round in India, reported Times of India.

The funding round was led by Udaan's existing investor Lightspeed Venture Partners and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, who has come on board new in his personal capacity.

Launched in November 2016 by three ex-Flipkart executives -- Vaibhav Gupta, Amod Malviya and Sujeet Kumar, Udaan is an end-to-end marketplace that connects businesses in consumer goods, fashion and electronics, offers logistics services and has recently started lending. With sellers across 80 cities, it delivers to more than 500 cities and will expand to more areas with the new capital. Its average order value is between Rs6,000 and Rs7,000.

The startup will use the freshly raised funds to add new sellers and buyers, expand logistics network, hire more engineers and sales executives and launch new services like lending

The startup had earlier raised $10 million in series A funding from Lightspeed India and Lightspeed US.

“We’ve raised this round because we have validation that our product is working. The market opportunity is huge and in just 15 months of launching, we’ve reached more than 500 cities. We also account for more than 15-20% of the business of many of the sellers on the platform. And our average repeat transactions are seven times a month. These metrics are big validation that there’s massive demand for our kind of end-to-end marketplace,” said Sujeet Kumar, who was heading logistics at Flipkart before co-founding Udaan.

The overall B2B market size is expected to be around $700 billion by 2020, according to an April 2016 report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Deloitte.

Last year, B2B e-commerce startups raised more than $200 million, the highest since 2010, according to Tracxn, a firm that tracks startups.

The biggest B2B startup funding in 2017 were $100 million funding of Just Buy Live via Ali Cloud Investment, Power2sme’s $36 million funding in series E round and Ratan Tata backed Moglix's $12 million fund raise via IFC, Rocketship and others. And, this year Udaan’s $50 million raise is largest large both for a Series B round and for a B2B startup.

In Largest Series-B Startup Funding, Ex-Flipkart Executives' Udaan Raises $50 Mn Via Lightspeed, Yuri Milner

Bengaluru-based B2B e-commerce marketplace Udaan has raised $50 million (~ ₹320 crore) in its series-B round of funding which marked as one of the largest early-startup funding round in India, reported Times of India.

The funding round was led by Udaan's existing investor Lightspeed Venture Partners and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, who has come on board new in his personal capacity.

Launched in November 2016 by three ex-Flipkart executives -- Vaibhav Gupta, Amod Malviya and Sujeet Kumar, Udaan is an end-to-end marketplace that connects businesses in consumer goods, fashion and electronics, offers logistics services and has recently started lending. With sellers across 80 cities, it delivers to more than 500 cities and will expand to more areas with the new capital. Its average order value is between Rs6,000 and Rs7,000.

The startup will use the freshly raised funds to add new sellers and buyers, expand logistics network, hire more engineers and sales executives and launch new services like lending

The startup had earlier raised $10 million in series A funding from Lightspeed India and Lightspeed US.

“We’ve raised this round because we have validation that our product is working. The market opportunity is huge and in just 15 months of launching, we’ve reached more than 500 cities. We also account for more than 15-20% of the business of many of the sellers on the platform. And our average repeat transactions are seven times a month. These metrics are big validation that there’s massive demand for our kind of end-to-end marketplace,” said Sujeet Kumar, who was heading logistics at Flipkart before co-founding Udaan.

The overall B2B market size is expected to be around $700 billion by 2020, according to an April 2016 report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Deloitte.

Last year, B2B e-commerce startups raised more than $200 million, the highest since 2010, according to Tracxn, a firm that tracks startups.

The biggest B2B startup funding in 2017 were $100 million funding of Just Buy Live via Ali Cloud Investment, Power2sme’s $36 million funding in series E round and Ratan Tata backed Moglix's $12 million fund raise via IFC, Rocketship and others. And, this year Udaan’s $50 million raise is largest large both for a Series B round and for a B2B startup.