Business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce unicorn Udaan has raised $75 million in fresh funding in a series G round led by M&G Plc. Existing investors, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, also participated in the round, the company’s founder and CEO Vaibhav Gupta told employees in a town hall on February 17.
Gupta added that the company is in advanced discussions to close an additional $25 million equity round from potential investors in the coming quarter, sources in the know told Moneycontrol.
The fresh funds will be used to deepen the company’s market penetration, strengthen strategic vendor partnerships, improve customer experience, and bolster its long-term supply chain and credit capabilities, sources said.
Queries sent to Udaan did not elicit an immediate response.
The company’s last major funding round came in December 2023 when it had raised as much as $340 million, in a round also led by M&G and Lightspeed. It had also raised Rs 300 crore in debt financing from investors like Lighthouse Canton, Stride Ventures, and InnoVen Capital, among others, in October last year.
Udaan, last month, received approval from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to consolidate its business verticals under a single entity – Hiveloop Ecommerce – as the company prepares for an initial public offering (IPO) expected by the end of 2025 or early next year.
As such, the firm has been on a cost cutting spree, including trimming its workforce, to improve unit economics. In FY24, the company cut its losses by 19 percent to Rs 1674.1 crore, compared to Rs 2075.9 crore in FY23. It, however, also reported flat revenue growth of 1.7 percent to Rs 5,706.6 crore during year.
Founded by former Flipkart executives, Sujeet Kumar, Amod Malviya and Vaibhav Gupta in 2016, Udaan competes with players such as Amazon, Flipkart, and Reliance’s JioMart in the B2B e-commerce space.
The current funding round notwithstanding, Udaan has raised a total funding of $1.88 billion from investors such as M&G Plc, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and DST Global. The company is currently has a valuation of about $1.8 billion, according to market intelligence platform Tracxn.
Udaan's fundraise comes less than a month after its peer, Bengaluru-based Infra.market, raised Rs 1,050 crore (roughly $120 million) in funding at a valuation of about Rs 24,147 crore (nearly $2.8 billion) valuation, ahead of its own IPO later this year.
In fact, B2B manufacturing unicorn Zetwerk is also in talks to raise $20-30 million from family offices and high-net-worth individuals (HNIs) at a valuation of $3.1 billion, Moneycontrol reported earlier.
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