Introduction
A B2B trading marketplace named Udaan was mainly developed to empower manufacturers, traders, wholesalers and retailers by using a source of technology. Udaan is a distinct initiative for medium and small businesses of India and it is run by a company named Hiveloop Technology Pvt Ltd. The main idea of the project Udaan is to link and connect among the manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers through a single platform by using a mobile application. The Udaan application allows users to get access to real intuition into active and operating trends and other various premium B2B trade functions.
Overview
Udaan is the B2B trading marketplace especially developed to empower manufacturers, traders, wholesalers and retailers by using a source of technology. Udaan is a distinct initiative for medium and small businesses in India. A startup venture needs to be valued as a dollar one billion or maybe more than that if the private startup venture wants to be a part of the Unicorn Club. In the year 2016 Udaan was established by one-time employees of Flipkart whose names are Sujeet Kumar, Vaibhav Gupta and Amod Malviya the trio have combined efforts to launch Udaan. Udaan has come up intending to create a full-stack platform for mid-sized and small enterprises and businesses that will provide a combination of lending, logistics and marketplace. According to the reports in India, there are more than 50 million medium and small enterprises and the total number of transactions that occur in these segments are more than 600 billion. The company Udaan claimed that their revenue is around Rs 65 crores in the fiscal year 2018. Whereas the losses were around Rs 59.5 crores and total expenses were Rs 66 crores.
Beginning of Udaan
To be a part of the unicorn club all the privately held startup ventures should be valued as a dollar one billion or more than that. Currently, Udaan has successfully made up for it and is a part of the unicorn club. In this case study, We will discuss growth and its strategies but before that let us give a brief about the initial days of the startup company Udaan. The trio of Sujeet Kumar, Vaibhav Gupta and Amod Malviya combined their equal efforts and founded the company Udaan. The founders have to put huge contributions individually and also work as a team to make the company what it is today. In the beginning, the startup venture Udaan started its journey as a platform for logistics for small sellers and buyers in apparel, staple and electronics. For the initial period of 8 to 10 months, they used to only focus on the logistic business. After receiving huge exposure in India they became very much significant for their startup venture. During that period Udaan has created a large database of sellers and buyers even before they move forward with the business of supply. In a very short period, Udaan is able to become a platform for lending for merchants. Later Udaan has aimed at creating a full-stack platform for mid-sized and small business enterprises which will be a combination of lending, logistics and marketplace.
Founders of Udaan
The idea of beginning the startup company Udaan was of the ex-employees of Flipkart who are Sujeet Kumar, Vaibhav Gupta and Amod Malviya. Amod Malviya was the former officer of chief Technology in Flipkart and Sujeet Kumar was the supply chain built logistics and operation executive in Flipkart. Whereas Vaibhav Gupta worked in the position of Senior VP at Flipkart.
The Business Model of Udaan
The startup company Udaan is a “business to business” marketplace on which wholesalers and manufacturers are able to sell their products and goods to retailers by using a simple and easy online platform which is a mobile application. The company also offers technical support, secure payment and logistics.
The company uses an asset-light strategy depending on its business model. Currently, they are not planning for asset-heavy and also they don’t believe in owning the asset. Udaan provides the facility to businesses to discover products across categories, connect, and link them to have the best deal, customers and suppliers. The platform helps to facilitate logistics support and secure payments. The company also provides solutions for payment management to merchants on their platform, order management and accounting.
The proponent of the company established that working capital for financing has become a major problem for the end retailers. As the retailers start lending from local lenders who charge exceptionally high prices, the Udaan starts to offer working capital or funds to such retailers at a reasonable price. Therefore Udaan is not only a platform for wholesalers and retailers but also provides underwriting loans to small enterprise businesses. Udaan has also got a license for a non-banking financial company to give financial funding to small and middle businesses.
Conclusion
The craze for digitization among small and mid-sized enterprise businesses has increased considerably in the last few years. The main reason for that was the introduction of the GST, the launch of digital payments and also the penetration of invoicing and the main idea of the project Udaan is to link and connect among the manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers through a single platform by using a mobile application. The three entrepreneurs researched and also gathered experience in their respective particular fields and thought of building an online platform that will be the only key to growth, success and sustenance for small and mid-sized businesses. It is believed that in the next few years they will be successful in making the small and mid-sized enterprise businesses sectors of India self-reliant. Udaan has already become one of the growing technology platforms in India mainly for small and mid-sized enterprises. The main focus of the startup venture Udaan is to authorize traditional or regular business practices through digitization.
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