E-Commerce firm Udaan raises $340 million ahead of planned IPO

Udaan, which competes with Reliance Industries Ltd. and Walmart Inc.’s Flipkart in helping smaller merchants source their goods, runs an online marketplace and logistics networks that help mum-and-pop stores get quicker deliveries and cut traditional middlemen out. That kind of digital-led wholesale business, though a very small part of India’s overall retail market, is expected to swell to $150 billion in sales in a decade, according to McKinsey & Co.

The startup targets an initial public offering in 2025, though it’s yet to decide whether it will do so in India or overseas, Gupta told Bloomberg News last month.

Udaan was founded in 2016 by three engineers who previously worked at Flipkart. The trio together ran the company until Gupta, one of the founders, took over as CEO in 2021. The other two founders — Amod Malviya and Sujeet Kumar — are board members.