Amid startup funding crunch, Udaan raises $120 million and plans IPO after a year

• The B2B e-commerce platform cheers the latest fundraise especially as the startup industry is currently going through a tough time finding investors to pump in the money.
  
  
• A recent PwC India report stated that startup funding hit a two-year low at $2.7 billion across 205 deals in the July-September quarter.
  
  
• Udaan is also targeting to go public in the next 12-18 months.
  
  
• The company has been restructuring its business model and focusing on cost efficiency as it plans to achieve profitability soon. Presently, Udaan is among top loss-making unicorns.
  

While the whole startup ecosystem is facing a funding crunch this year, this outlier startup – a business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce platform called Udaan – has raised $120 million in convertible notes and debt.

With this round, the total funds raised by Udaan through convertible notes and debt in the last four quarters have crossed $350 million. Udaan enables small manufacturers, farmers, and brands to market and sell their products across the country at low cost with 100% payment security and complete transparency.

The company cheers the latest fundraise especially as the startup industry is currently going through a tough time finding investors to pump in the money.

“Despite the funding-related challenges being experienced by the larger start-up ecosystem, this fund raise reflects the confidence of investors in our business model and their endorsement of the journey to unit economics, driven by great progress in evolution of our business model and cost efficiency, that we initiated last year,” said Udaan’s chief financial officer Aditya Pande in a mail to employees.

In fact, a recent PwC India’s report stated that startup funding has hit a two-year low at $2.7 billion across 205 deals in the July-September quarter.

Moreover, only two startups in India attained unicorn status in the same quarter. This mirrors a global trend which too saw a decline in the number of new unicorns last quarter.

Experts have found it hard to predict the end line of the funding slowdown as investors remain cautious in a volatile environment.

“It is tough to predict how long the slowdown in funding will last but clearly, both founders and investors are being more selective and cautious in deal-making,” said Amit Nawka, partner-deals and India startups leader at PwC India.

Besides, the B2B e-commerce startup is targeting to go public in the next 12-18 months.

The company has been restructuring its business model and focusing on cost efficiency as it plans to achieve profitability soon. Presently, Udaan is among top loss-making unicorns.

It has now become crucial for startups to achieve profitability before going public as investors have become very cautious about investing in loss-making startups as seen in the cases of Nykaa, Paytm and Zomato.