India's Udaan raises $300m in Series D round

Existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and DST Global, which led the company’s $225 million Series C last year, also took part in the new round, according to regulatory documents cited by local media. The Series D round could close as high as $500 million, and is expected to value the company at $2.7 billion.

Udaan was founded in 2016 by a team of former Flipkart executives and provides a marketplace through which small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can overcome the language, cultural, and internal tax barriers that characterize the Indian economy and achieve meaningful scale. It claims to have more than 150,000 buyers and sellers from 29 states across India on its platform.

The company prioritizes helping customers establish a trusting relationship with their counterparties as well as with the platform itself. It uses transaction data to create profiles of buyers’ record of paying for goods on time and sellers’ ability to deliver goods to certain standards and deadlines.

Udaan also underwrites loans for the SMEs that use its platform and provides logistics services as part of its efforts to control the customer experience from end to end. The new capital will be used to support its expansion plans and to scale up its lending business.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Technology
• Expansion
• India
• TMT
• GGV Capital
• Hillhouse Capital Management
• Lightspeed Venture Partners
• DST Advisors