Bangalore-based Udaan plans to use the funding to strengthen customer experience, expand market penetration and improve supply chain operations. The company says it has over 3 million retailers as registered users and more than 25,000 sellers.

Udaan — a B2B marketplace used by over 3 million retailers to source goods ranging from fruits and vegetables to apparel and electronics — has raised $340 million in funding to drive further growth.

The company said this week it will use the funding to “strengthen customer experience and market penetration, forge strategic vendor partnerships, and reinforce supply-chain and credit capabilities.”

The Series E financing round was led by London-based global investment manager M&G Plc. Existing investors Lightspeed and DST Global also participated.  This latest round brings Udaan’s total funding to $2 billion, according to Crunchbase.

Udaan eyes an IPO

Vaibhav Gupta, Udaan’s CEO, says the recent funding will help his company prepare for an initial public offering of stock.

“The Series E round strengthens our balance sheet and fully funds our business plan,” he said in a statement. “It enables our continued journey of growth and profitability, positioning us well to be public-market ready in the next 12-18 months.”

advertisement

Gupta co-founded Udaan in 2016 with Amod Malviya and Sujeeta Kumar. All three are former executives of India-based online marketplace company Flipkart.

Redseer Strategy Consultants, an India-based research and consulting firm, has noted that Udaan is the most well-known and preferred B2B marketplace platform by retailers looking to purchase goods online from suppliers.

Redseer projects India’s total B2B ecommerce will reach total gross merchandise value of between $90 billion and $100 billion by 2030.

Other research foresees far more growth, however. Bessemer Venture Partners, for example, predicts that, by 2030, B2B ecommerce in India will reach $200 billion.

advertisement

Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. [email protected].

Sign up

Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 B2B News, published 4x/week. It covers technology and business trends in the growing B2B ecommerce industry. Contact Mark Brohan, vice president of B2B and Market Research Development, at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @markbrohan.

Favorite