Udaan's B2B marketplace bet survives a $1.8B down round and heads toward EBITDA profit

A B2B e-commerce platform connecting manufacturers and brands with small retailers across India — FMCG, staples, pharma and fresh produce — with its own logistics network (udaanExpress).

Small retailers would replace wholesalers and cash-and-carry trips with an app: Udaan would own the B2B supply chain from brands to kirana stores with its own logistics.

Founded in 2016 by three ex-Flipkart executives — Vaibhav Gupta, Sujeet Kumar and Amod Malviya — Udaan bet that India's fragmented wholesale trade would digitize; it raised roughly $1.95B in total and by its own claim held about 70% of India's B2B e-commerce.

Valued at $3.2B in January 2021, Udaan hit the funding winter hard: in December 2023 it raised $340M in a Series E led by M&G Prudential at roughly $1.8B — nearly a 50% markdown — and laid off about 120 employees a week later. FY24 revenue stayed flat at ₹5,706.6 Cr with a net loss of ₹1,674.1 Cr, while EBITDA burn fell 40% in 2024 and another 20% in early 2025.

Still operating and now positioned as a turnaround, not a casualty: an extended Series G raised a further $114M from M&G and Lightspeed in June 2025, the company consolidated its verticals under Hiveloop Ecommerce after NCLT approval, and it said it was on track for full-group EBITDA profitability within 18 months.

The bet was scale: a low-margin B2B marketplace only works with dense networks of buyers, sellers and delivery, so Udaan spent aggressively while capital was cheap.

When valuations reset, the down round at $1.8B showed investors would fund survival but not old marks — nearly half the 2021 peak vanished.

Udaan's comeback was operational: cutting EBITDA burn 40% a year for three years and adding margin points turned a troubled balance sheet into an IPO story.

Existing backers kept bridging — M&G and Lightspeed led both the $340M Series E and the $114M Series G, protecting their positions rather than abandoning the bet.

Scale bets die in funding winters: after a $1.8B down round, Udaan survived by making cost a weapon — EBITDA burn cut 40% a year for three years — and keeping backers funding each bridge.

As of June 2025, Udaan had raised a total of $1.95B and was valued around $1.8B. It consolidated its business verticals under Hiveloop Ecommerce after NCLT approval in January 2025, reported FY24 revenue of ₹5,706.6 Cr, and said it was on track for full-group EBITDA profitability within 18 months, with a public listing targeted around end-2025 or early 2026. It remained the largest player in Indian B2B e-commerce by its own claim, focusing fresh capital on FMCG and the HoReCa segment.