[Funding alert] Udaan raises $280M from existing and new investors

B2B unicorn Udaan has raised $280 million in additional financing from its existing and new investors. The new investors include Octahedron Capital and Moonstone Capital that join the existing group of Lightspeed Venture Partners, DST Global, GGV Capital, Altimeter Capital, and Tencent.

The latest round of investment takes the total funds raised by Udaan to $1.15 billion.

According to this startup, the fresh round of funding will be used towards the expansion of selection of products and categories, furthering user experience, enhancing technology platform, expanding SME financing capabilities and reinforcement of the supply chain infrastructure.

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On the funding, Udaan Co-founder Amod Malviya said, “COVID-19 has accelerated the already fast digital-led evolution of highly fragmented and unorganised Indian trade retail industry. Udaan is at the forefront of this uniquely Indian ecommerce opportunity, emerging in the last four years as one of the largest ecommerce platforms in India.”

He further said, “Participation of existing and new investors in this financing highlights the increasing recognition of capital markets of this unique nature of the Indian market, and the opportunity it offers. It also reflects the long-term truly transformative and fundamental value creation potential that Udaan platform offers.”

Udaan brings the connect between the retailers and manufacturers as the platform serves wide category of products like lifestyle, electronics, home and kitchen, staples, fruits and vegetables, FMCG, pharma, toys and general merchandise.

This B2B marketplace has a network of over three million users in 900 cities and connecting to over 25,000 sellers across the country. Udaan addresses a market segment of over 100 million farmers, 15 million manufacturers, and 30 million retailers.

According to Udaan, it also built inclusive tech tools for Bharat, especially catering to the needs of brands, retailers and manufacturers providing them with a level playing field to scale, trade and grow business.

Founded in 2016, Udaan has the distinction of becoming a unicorn – a startup, which enjoys a valuation of $1 billion and above – in the shortest period of time for the Indian ecosystem.