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The world of consumers has been ever dependant on traders, wholesalers, retailers, and manufacturers for countless products that they need to survive. Though it has become less of a hassle for the consumers now with the birth of e-commerce, it has indeed been troublesome for the others of the distribution channel.
For all the existing retail shops and shop owners or the individuals who sum up the wholesaling and retailing segment of the market, it has been not been easy for them to connect with the others in the distribution channel and vice versa. This is why the B2B eCommerce platform has come into being, to make everyone seem connected in the chain and Udaan is a leading operator in this segment.
Udaan is designed to connect help the traders, retailers, and wholesalers for the small and medium businesses of India. Udaan's platform supports a wide variety of categories like electronics, home and kitchen, fruits and vegetables, toys, and more. So, here's taking a dive into the success story of Udaan where we will check out everything about Udaan, its Startup Story, Founders and Team, Business model, Revenue model, Logo, Funding and investors, Competitors, Growth, Future Plans, and more below.
Company Highlights
| Startup Name | Udaan |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Bengaluru, Karnataka, India |
| Sector | E-commerce |
| Founders | Amod Malviya, Vaibhav Gupta and Sujeet Kumar |
| Founded | 2016 |
| Total Valuation | $3.1 bn (November 2021) |
| Parent Organization | Trustroot Internet Pvt. Ltd. |
| Website | udaan.com |
Udaan - Latest News
September 23, 2021 - Udaan is planning to raise over Rs 2,000 crores by allotting NCDs (Non-Convertible Debentures), for which it has already received approval from its shareholders.
Udaan - About
Udaan - Founders And Team
Udaan - Startup Story
Udaan - Business Model
Udaan - Revenue Model
Udaan - Logo, Tagline and Slogan
Udaan - Funding And Investors
Udaan - Competitors
Udaan - Growth
Udaan - Future Plans
Udaan - About
Udaan is a (B2B) Business-to-Business e-commerce platform. The company helps its users to grow their businesses by leveraging the power of technology. It is popularly known as one of the largest national distribution platform of its kind that has already attained the unicorn status when it raised around $225 million in 2018.
With an aim to make business easy in India, it provides its users, access to new markets. Furthermore, it also provides financial products for the sellers and buyers of the country as well. The goal of the company is to bring traders, manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers under a single platform.
Udaan - Founders And Team
Amod Malviya, Vaibhav Gupta and Sujeet Kumar are the founders of the company Udaan.
- Amod Malviya is the Founder and the Engineer of the company. Malviya prominently served as the Chief Technology Officer at Flipkart for a period of more than 5 years. Itellix Software Solutions, Riya Internet Technologies Pvt Ltd, and ApnaPaisa Pvt. Ltd. are some other companies where Amod has served as Software Engineer, Sr. Software Engineer, and V.P Engineering respectively before founding Udaan. Amod Malviya was an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, from where he completed his B.tech in Electrical Engineering.
- Vaibhav Gupta is another founder of Udaan, who was also appointed as the CEO of the company in September 2021. Vaibhav was also a previous employee at Flipkart, which he joined after serving as an Engagement Manager and Senior Consultant at McKinsey & Company and Trilogy E-Business Software India Ltd. respectively. Gupta is also an IITian, who graduated from IIT Delhi with Computer Science & Engineering. He then pursued his MBA from the University of Virginia, Darden Graduate School of Business Administration.
- Sujeet Kumar is the co-founder of Udaan. He pursued his B.Tech in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Sujeet was appointed as the President of Operations at Flipkart, where he served for over 3 years before founding Udaan.
Udaan - Startup Story
The initial idea of starting Udaan was discovered by the ex-Flipkart employees to empower the small and medium scale businesses of India.
Initially, Udaan started as a logistic platform for small buyers and sellers in electronics. They focused on electronics during the first 8 - 10 months and with this, Udaan managed to be in the limelight within the boundaries of the country, which was very important for them as a startup company. The primary requisite of Udaan was to develop the database strongly before stepping into the supply business. The B2B eCommerce startup is now eyeing to emerge as a lending platform for merchants.
Udaan - Business Model
Udaan is the asset-light player based on their Business Model. They have got no plans to own an asset. Being a B2B e-commerce platform, Udaan helps businesses to discover various customers, suppliers, and products across different categories in order to make the best deals possible. The company also facilitates secure payments and offers additional logistics support.
Udaan offers accounting, order, and payment management solutions to the merchants registered on their platform. It provides the working capital (funds) to the retailers at reasonable rates. So, basically, Udaan is not only a platform for retailers and wholesalers but also helps in underwriting loans for small businesses.
Vibhavari Madki
Udaan - Revenue Model
The revenue model of Udaan can be laid out as:
- Revenue from Logistics: As logistics is an important part of the services of Udaan, it also serves as a revenue driver for the company. Udaan collects delivery charges from the market participants against the services it provides, associated with the pick up of goods from the seller’s premises and delivering the same to the buyers. The company also receives fees for collecting any return of sales from the customers.
- Warehousing services: Udaan offers storage and warehousing services for the sellers who are registered with the platform in order to deliver goods faster to the buyers, which in turn generates revenues for the company.
- Receivable collection services: Udaan also collects fees from receivable management services that include the collection of payments from buyers in cash on behalf of the sellers or accepting payments online on behalf of the sellers.
- Advertisement services: The advertisement services that Udaan provides, where the company promotes the product listings to ensure better visibility among the buyers of the platform also contributes to a part of their revenues.
- Interest from credit: Udaan also offers credit to its merchants and traders via its NBFC arm, which helps them meet their working capital requirements. This service of Udaan helps the company generate interests, which thus becomes an important source of revenue for the platform.
- Other value-added services: Udaan offers numerous other fee-based value-added services to the businesses that are registered on its platform. These services consist of packaging and printing labels on products, the printing of invoices, and returns management services, which also add up to the total revenues of the company.
Vibhavari Madki
Udaan - Logo, Tagline and Slogan
Udaan's tagline or slogan reads as Khole Munafe Ka Shutter.
Udaan - Funding And Investors
Udaan has raised a total amount of $1.2 Billion in funding over the 8 funding rounds that it has seen. The last funding round for the company came in on November 18, 2021, which was a debt round when Udaan raised close to $6.73 million (Rs 50 crore) Blacksoil, Corsa Ventures, VBG Group, and Walton Street India.
| Date | Transaction Name | Money Raised | Lead Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 18, 2021 | Debt Financing Round | $6.73 Million | Corsa Ventures, VBG Group, and Walton Street India, Blacksoil |
| November 6, 2021 | Debt financing round | $10 Million | InnoVen Capital |
| January 6, 2021 | Series D | $280 Million | DST Global, Octahedron Capital, Lightspeed Ventures |
| March 23, 2020 | Venture Round | $30 Million | Trustroot Internet |
| October 2, 2019 | Series D | $585 Million | Altimeter Capital, Citi Ventures, DST Global, Footpath Ventures, GGV Capital, Hillhouse Capital Group, Tencent Holdings |
| September 3, 2018 | Series C | $225 Million | DST Global, Lightspeed India Partners |
| February 21, 2018 | Series B | $43.42 Million | Lightspeed Venture Partners |
| November 23, 2016 | Series A | $10 Million | Lightspeed Venture Partners |
Udaan has received funding from over 11 investors among which Octahedron is the most recent investor for the brand.
The B2B eCommerce marketplace is eyeing to raise up to Rs 2,000 crores by allotting NCDs (Non-Convertible Debentures) and has also got approval from its shareholders for the same.
Udaan - Competitors
The top competitors of the company are ZoomTail, Bigtrade, and Tradekosh.
- Zoomtail is the number one competitor of Udaan. Zoomtail is also a B2B e-commerce platform but it specializes in fashion consumer goods.
- Bigtrade is one of the top rivals of Udaan. It was founded in the year 2017. A year later than Udaan. It is also headquartered at Bengaluru, India.
- Tradekosh is a Pune-based startup company that came into existence just two years ago, 2018. Tradekosh is in the third number in rivalry with Udaan. It is also an online B2B platform that connects retailers and manufacturers. It's a bit different from Udaan.
Rishabh Rathi
Udaan - Growth
Udaan is growing. A wide range of merchants, farmers, shopkeepers, owners, restaurants, chemists, and street vendors are connected to Udaan. It has got a big supply chain network throughout India to fulfill more than half of the orders on its platform. Udaan now boasts of having more than 5 lakh products on its platform. Being the largest B2B platform of India, Udaan claims to have 30+ lakhs of retailers, 25K+ sellers who are currently connected with the brand, which now operates in more than 900 cities.
Udaan - Future Plans
The company is aiming towards using fresh capital to expand its supply chain network in India and also focus more on growing the marketplace in both new and existing categories. The founder trio believes that they are building a better platform for small businesses in India. They are also aiming towards generating more revenue.
Author: Purbalee Dutta
Source : https://startuptalky.com/udaan-success-story/
Date : 2021-11-19T06:28:00.000Z