Online B2B e-commerce marketplace Udaan — a little over three years old — is possibly the fourth-highest valued startup in India. The Bengaluru-based firm filed a valuation report on September 23, 2019, which valued Udaan at $7.5 billion or Rs 53,365.45 crore based on projected cash flows and equity infusions.
If we go by this number, it makes Udaan the fourth-highest valued startup right after Paytm ($16 billion), OYO ($10 billion) and Byju’s ($8 billion).
The same report further projected that Udaan will reduce its losses to Rs 375 crore in FY21 and will register profit before tax of Rs 3,082 crore in FY22. Following this, the company passed a special resolution in a meeting held in January and approved allotment of 4,02,641 Series E Compulsorily Convertible Preference Shares (CCPS) to its Singapore-based holding entity Trustroot Internet PTE.
TechCircle first reported this development where it said that Udaan has given this valuation by taking into account projected cash flows for nine financial years and expected equity capital infusion during a three-year timeframe.
This comes at a time when the company — founded by former Flipkart executives Amod Malviya, Sujeet Kumar, and Vaibhav Gupta — made a loss of almost Rs 780 crore during FY19 at a revenue of Rs 46 crore.
Even without the new valuation numbers, Udaan’s valuation of $2.8 billion at its last financing round in October 2019 seemed a bit of a stretch for a company that has been guzzling cash at a breakneck speed. And now the company, which was registered as Hiveloop in June 2016, is being valued over 2.5 times since its last funding.
During this funding round, Udaan had raised $586 million from Tencent, Altimeter Capital, GGV Capital, Hillhouse Capital, Citi Ventures and Footpath Ventures along with the participation of existing investors Lightspeed and DST Global.
Udaan is a horizontal marketplace that connects retailers with wholesalers and traders who sell products ranging across categories from electronics and apparel to grocery and fresh produce.
The company also offers logistics services along with working capital loans to the sellers on the platform.
Udaan’s official website claims to have 20,000 sellers and 10 lakh retailers from 900 cities and towns in India. With more than 15 lakh products available on the website, it supplies a few of the top brands including SanDisk, Karbonn, boat, and HP among many others.
