B2B e-commerce unicorn Udaan has raised $250 Mn in a fresh funding round, according to reports. The latest round is a mix of convertible note and debt funding, with $200 Mn fund funded through convertible debt and the rest $50 Mn funded through pure debt instrument. Interestingly, in the same month last year the Bengaluru based startup had raised $280 Mn at a valuation of over $3 Bn.

The fresh round has brought five new marque investors at Udaan’s cap table while existing investors also participated in the round. But the names of the new and existing investors could not be ascertained at the time of filing this story.

For all those who are not aware, convertible debt is an instrument that gets converted into equity at an IPO stage. This fact strongly indicates that the Bengaluru based startup is strongly vying for an IPO in the near future. The same has been explicitly mentioned in the company’s internal mail that has been accessed by several news portal.

India’s B2B commerce market remains highly unorganized but experts claim that there is enough headroom for growth. Not surprisingly, the B2B e-commerce space is witnessing intense competition, especially with the entry of Walmart backed Flipkart and Reliance Jio retail.

For Udaan the latest funding round will certainly help the company in building its war chest and off setting the competition.

Udaan essentially helps in bringing retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers all under one platform. The platform not only facilitates small retailers and manufacturers in buying products in different categories but also accessing working capital.

Back in 2018, Udaan became the talk of the town after it became India’s youngest unicorn. The company held this unique title until last year when blue collar platform Apna became the new youngest unicorn of India.

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Techpluto’s query to Udaan went unanswered at the time filing this story. We’ll update our readers as and when we get any official response from the company.

The beta version of the Pickily app has already gone live on Google Play Store, with its play store page showing little over 1,000 downloads. On play store, the app introduces itself as an online grocery delivery app.

According to unconfirmed reports, Udaan is currently running a pilot project to allow customers living in the selected areas of Bengaluru to order groceries through Pickily app. However, we could not ascertain how many orders Pickily app has processed so far.

To streamline its entry in the online grocery & FMGC space, the company is reportedly building a fulfillment and distribution centers in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Reports further suggest that Pickily app is slated for official launch next month.

On the outset, the Bengaluru headquartered company’s reported decision to foray into B2C space may appear to be a cascading effect of the ongoing coronavirus crisis, which has forced several startups to go for a temporary pivot; with most of them opting for grocery delivery since its demand was skyrocketing during the lockdown period.

However, only time will tell if Udaan is really serious about online grocery delivery business with long term view in mind. This hypothesis, of course, holds only if the company eventually enters the B2C space. Keeping watching this space to know whether or not Udaan takes flight into the unexplored terrain.

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According to reports, Udaan has furloughed nearly 1000 contract staff to preserve capital. These contract employees mainly include delivery executives and the sales employees. The company has, however, not handed pink slips to any of its pay roll employees.

There is no confirmation on whether the company plans to slash the salaries of its pay roll employees. Techpluto will reach to Udaan regarding this and update our readers once we’ve confirmation about this matter.

Following this mass layoff, Udaan has joined other illustrious unicorn startups that have taken similar steps; these unicorn startups include Swiggy, Paytm and Oyo. By the way, Udaan holds the special status in the unicorn world, since it is fastest Indian startup to achieve the unicorn tag.

The Bengaluru based company breached the $1 Bn valuation mark within two years of its inception. It is essentially a B2B marketplace that helps small and medium businesses to buy, sell and even avail business loans.

Given that MSME sector has been hard hit by the ongoing nationwide lockdown, Udaan’s decision to scale down its business comes across hardly surprising. Unlike big corporates and MNCs, MSMEs don’t have the capital cushion to weather the rough storm.

Interestingly, Udaan had recently secured an internal funding of $30 Mn from its Singapore based parent company. It had even bagged a massive funding of $585 million in October last year at an impressive valuation of $2.8 billion.

Like several well-known startups, Udaan’s genesis are connected with Indian startup industry’s poster boy Flipkart. All its three co-founders Sujeet Kumar, Amod Malviya and Vaibhav Gupta were former senior executives at Flipkart.

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Udaan: The co-founders of this barely three year old company could not have probably thought of a better name than Udaan, which literally means keep soaring high. After becoming the youngest unicorn in India’s startup history, Udaan added another feather in its cap this week after raising massive $585 Mn in a series D round. The round was spearheaded by Tencent, Altimeter, Footpath Ventures, Hillhouse, GGV Capital, and Citi Ventures. Existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and DST Global also participated in the round.

This is probably one of the biggest funding rounds in India’s B2B e-commerce space. And the latest round has propelled Udaan’s market valuation to nearly $2.5 Bn.                                  

Dunzo:  Hyperlocal delivery platform Dunzo has a good reason to remain buoyant about its future as it raised $45 million (Rs 318.58 crore) in a fresh funding round. Lightbox, 3L Capital, and South Korea’s STIC Investment & STIC Ventures led the round. Existing investor and technology giant Google also pumped capital in the funding round.         

Dunzo said that it will use the latest capital infusion for ramping up its platforms by adding more merchants and delivery partners. Founded in 2015, the platform deliveries wide-range of products to consumer doorsteps – from medicines & groceries to restaurant deliveries and instant courier.

NoBroker: Off late PE major Tiger Global has been on a funding spree and Indian startups are obviously very happy about it. This week it was Bengaluru based online real estate platform NoBroker that became the latest beneficiary of Tiger Global’s generosity. NoBroker raised $50 Mn from the New York based PE major while existing investor General Atlantic also participated in the round.

“The current funding will help us provide the service to more customers across the country and accelerate our deal closure growth,” Amit Kumar Agarwal (CEO & co-founder) said about the fundraising.                 

Paytm First Games: Due to increasing competition from Google Pay and PhonePe, Paytm may not be going through best of times. But this didn’t stopped Paytm First Games – gaming arm of the Gurgaon based company – from raising $20 Mn. Alibaba’s AGTech and Paytm’s parent company One97 Communications infused the capital in the round.

Paytm First Games plans to utilize the funds for scaling up its operation, ramping up its technology capabilities and for marketing purposes. Vijay shekhar sharma’s company plans to make its gaming arm as the country’s biggest gaming platform in the coming years.

Clix Capital: Investor’s love affair with Fintech startups continues as the SME lender Clix Capital collected handsome $40 Mn from its existing investor Aion Capital. According to reports, no other investors participated in the funding round.

Aion Capital’s massive investment in Clix Capital stands in complete contrast to the current crisis surrounding the NBFC industry, which continues to grapple with the low liquidity problem. But as I said in the beginning that Indian startups have developed an immunity against economic slowdown.

Shubh Loans: Staying with Fintech startups, B2C capital finance provider Shubh Loans raised $ 4.78 Mn or Rs 34 crore as part of the series A funding round. Omidyar Network India spearheaded the round while existing investors Saama Capital, Beenext, SRI Capital, and Pravega Ventures also participated in the round. The company said that it will use the funds to ramp up its platform, enhancing its technological capabilities and grow its data science team.

Fyle: In today’s complicated times managing expenses is bit tricky and Fyle tries to help companies to tackle this complicated problem. This week the young startup got much needed funding boost after it raised $4.5 million in a fresh funding round. US-based hedge fund Steadview Capital spearheaded the round. Existing investors Tiger Global, Freshworks, and Pravega Ventures also participated in the round.                          

FinBox: Bengaluru based Fintech startup FinBox secured undisclosed amount of funding from Arali Ventures in a pre-series A round. Marquee angel investor Anup Pai also participated in the funding round. FinBox said that it will use the funds for R&D and driving adoption.

Orb Energy: Energy giant Shell secured 20% stake in Orb Energy, a solar energy solution startup based in Bengaluru.  The company said that the latest capital infusion will help in providing low cost solar powers to SMEs. The startup actually helps in providing SMEs credit to invest in rooftop solar systems.

Greytip: HR and payroll software solutions firm Greytip got a much needed funding boost of 34.5 Crore from Info Edge and MegaDelta Capital. The new funding round will pave Info Edge, which owns job portal site Naukri.com, to become part of company’s board of director team.                      

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