Udaan which is an e-commerce platform has received a fund worth $585 million from a clutch of investors. Tencent, Altimeter Capital, Hillhouse Capital, GGV Capital. Footpath Ventures and Citi Ventures along with existing investors of the company Lightspeed Venture Partners and DST Global participated in the funding round. Udaan became one of the fastest-growing startups when it received funds worth$225 million in September 2018 from DST Global and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Udaan, a Bengaluru-based company is an e-marketplace that helps retailers purchase goods from wholesalers and traders, across different industries like apparel,
Electronics, pharmacy, staples, fresh foods, and fast-moving consumer goods. It was founded by former

Flipkart executives Vaibhav Gupta, Amod Malviya, and Sujeet Kumar.

Udaan has three million retailers and 25,000 sellers across 200 cities. The company enables sellers to source from large manufacturers and distributors by offering supply chain, lending, payments, and marketing capabilities. “We will continue to focus on growing the marketplace - adding more buyers, sellers, bringing in more categories on the platform and investing around building capabilities in fulfillment, delivery, lending, marketing, category management, and core technology,” said co-founder Gupta. The valuation of the company is expected to soar up to $2 billion in annual gross merchandise value (GMV).

India has a large number of fragmented retailer base and small businesses which amounts to $800 billion-$1 trillion to its economic growth. With the advent of smartphones and the internet, even the smallest retailers are taking advantage of analytics, financial inclusivity, and procurement. That along with structural changes in the economy and inclusion of a goods and service tax, Unified Payments Interface and fulfillment, has further fuelled the growth of this sector. The opportunity to eliminate middleman, tap into big basket sizes, and repeatability in purchases makes the sector attractive for investment. “Empowering small businesses to more effectively procure and sell goods is not only a massive business opportunity but will help transform the economy by providing internet-scale productivity gains to merchants, wholesalers, and manufacturers,” said Brad Gerstner, CEO of Altimeter Capital.