B2B platform Udaan secures $585 million

Udaan, the Business-to-business (B2B) platform, has secured $585 million from Tencent, Altimeter, Footpath Ventures, Hillhouse, GGV Capital, and Citi Ventures. The round has also seen participation from existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and DST Global.

This round takes the total funds raised by the e-commerce start-up to $870 million since 2016. The fresh capital will be used by Udaan in continuing its long-term investment approach in building its platform.

Udaan was founded by former Flipkart executives Amod Malviya, Sujeet Kumar, and Vaibhav Gupta. The platform enables small manufacturers, farmers, mills, and brands to sell their products across India at low costs, with 100% payment security and transparency.

Martin Lau, President of Tencent, said, “Udaan’s unique approach could enhance the capabilities of millions of retail stores.”

Brad Gerstner, Founder and CEO of Altimeter Capital, and Ram Parameswaran, Partner at Altimeter Capital, stated, “Empowering millions of small businesses to effectively procure and sell goods is not only a massive business opportunity, but will also help transform the economy by providing internet-scale productivity gains to merchants, wholesalers, and manufacturers.”