BENGALURU: Business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce platform, Udaan, said on Friday that it will shift to a formal chief executive officer (CEO)-led model, appointing co-founder Vaibhav Gupta to the post as the first step.
The move comes at a time when Udaan is in early stages of exploring a public listing, with plans to hit the exchanges over the next 18-24 months.
Udaan, co-founded by former Flipkart executives Gupta, Amod Malviya and Sujeet Kumar, didn’t have a CEO earlier, with the three founders managing different aspects of the business.
As part of the new operation model, co-founders and board members Malviya and Kumar will actively work with Gupta to ensure that the organiwation effectively transitions to a CEO-led structure, the company said in a statement, adding that the changes are effective immediately.
“Founded with a vision to empower small and medium businesses of Bharat, Udaan has come a long way in the last five years creating not only the B2B e-commerce industry in India but also a playbook that is now being fastly emulated in other developing economies.
"As we embark on the next phase of our growth journey, it is important to lay the right foundations for that. It is with this objective that this structure has been created that will help in the evolution of the organisation, enhance agility and efficiency, drive innovation and bring us closer to the customer," said Gupta, the newly-appointed CEO, in a statement.
Over the past 12-18 months, Udaan has invested more than Rs4,000 crore across different business pillars including technology, supply chain, credit, people, compliance, to accelerate its growth.
“We are delighted that Vaibhav has agreed to be the captain of the ship and steer Udaan towards the future. The Indian market offers tremendous growth potential in the B2B e-commerce space, and having worked together for years, we know that Vaibhav, with his in-depth understanding of the business, is the best person to lead the organisation," said co-founders Malviya and Kumar in a joint statement.
For the next few years, Udaan is expected to concentrate on strengthening governance, driving innovation, capabilities, systems and processes, with a special focus on building a talent pipeline, the co-founders said.
Currently, five-year old Udaan is focused on facilitating B2B trade for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and brings traders, wholesalers, retailers, manufacturers, and brands onto one single platform.
It operates across various categories of lifestyle, electronics, home and kitchen, staples, fruits and vegetables, fast moving consumer goods and pharmaceuticals. Udaan’s platform serves over 3 million users, 1.7 million retailers and 30,000 sellers across 12,000 pincodes in the country.
In January, the company had raised $280 million from Chinese technology behemoth, Tencent, which valued it at a little over $3 billion. Udaan’s existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, DST Global, GGV Capital and Altimeter Capital had also participated in the round.
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Udaan shifts to CEO-led model; plans to go public in 18-24 months - Mint
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