udaan layoffs: B2B unicorn lets go of 10% workforce days after raising a $340 million funding round

In a recent exercise, udaan restructured its business units to consolidate the essentials businesses of FMCG, staples, and pharma, with the discretionary business of general merchandise, lifestyle, and electronics. Vivek Gupta, who was in charge of the essentials business, moved away from his operational role, and Uday Bhaskar was appointed to lead the consolidated unit.

The restructuring, it is understood, led to some redundancies, resulting in these layoffs.

Confirming the development, udaan said in a statement to CNBC-TV18, “Over the last few years, we have made significant investments to build a solid and sustainable business. We believe in efficiency as a driver of profitable growth and are continuously making efforts to enhance efficiency, grow business sustainably and further improve customer experience. We have already made significant progress in our journey towards building a profitable business and continue to make relevant interventions to our already proven business model, while remaining customer centric and agile. However, these interventions have also resulted in some redundancies in the system.”

udaan added that it was working towards providing support to the impacted employees including medical insurance, compensation package as per company policy and placement assistance, without specifying the exact number of employees that were let go.

The layoffs are part of the Bengaluru-headquartered startup’s attempts to cut costs and turn profitable ahead of the proposed public offering, which it is targeting over the next 12-18 months.

After raising the $340 million funding last week, Vaibhav Gupta, co-founder and CEO, udaan, said, “Series E round strengthens our balance sheet and fully funds our business plan. It enables our continued journey of growth and profitability, positioning us well to be public-market ready in the next 12-18 months.”

Founded in 2016, the B2B eCommerce platform operates across categories including lifestyle, electronics, home and kitchen, staples, fruits & vegetables, FMCG, pharma, toys and general merchandise. It has three million plus retailers and thousands of sellers on the platform across the country.

The platform enables supply chain and logistics operations, focused on B2B trade and built on strong technology, for daily delivery across 1200+ cities and 12,500+ pin codes through udaanExpress. It also enables financial products and services to small businesses, manufacturers, and retailers through udaanCapital to grow their business.