According to an internal email from the company’s Chief Financial Officer, B to B marketplace Udaan has raised $120 million in convertible notes and debt, with current shareholders and bondholders leading the charge. The business hopes to list on a public market in the next 12 to 18 months, according to the message.

With this round, Udaan will have raised more than $350 million using convertible notes and loans, making it one of the biggest structured instrument fundraises in the nation.

The Chief Financial Officer of Udaan, Aditya Pande, wrote in an email that ” This fund raise shows investors’ faith in our business model and their support for the journey to unit economics that we started last year, which is driven by great progress in the evolution of our business model and cost efficiency. Although the wider startup ecosystem is experiencing the funding-related difficulties.”

According to him, these actions increased system efficiency, which has significant cost advantages and is essential for building a sustainable business in addition to aiding us in achieving positive unit economics in the previous quarter.

The business intends to go public within the next 12 to 18 months, according to the mail.

The business raised $250 million in January of this year, including $50 million in debt and $200 million in convertible notes, or short-term financing that may be turned into stock.

In April of this year, Microsoft Corporation joined the organization’s fundraising efforts. Investors including M&G Prudential, Kaiser Permanente, Nomura, TOR, Arena Investors, Samena Capital, and Ishana Capital contributed to the $225 million round.

Amod Malaviya, Sujeet Kumar, and Vaibhav Gupta, three former employees of Flipkart, founded Udaan in 2016. It provides a platform for traders, wholesalers, retailers, and manufacturers to connect, find customers, suppliers, and products across categories, and engage with one another directly for the best deals.

On its investor roster, the company has backers like Octahedron Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Moonstone Capital, DST Global, GGV Capital, Altimeter Capital, and Tencent. It has so far raised more than $1.5 billion in stock and debt. In January 2021, it secured $280 million in an equity investment round.

The corporate representative chose not to comment on the most recent debt increase. According to Pande’s email to the staff, the company’s unit economics increased by almost 1000 basis points, while operational costs and gross margins also saw significant increases.

The report claimed that a greater than 60% decrease in burn had resulted from using the proper business strategy and unit economics.

The firm reported that over the past two quarters, its monthly buyer repeat rates had improved by more than 500 bps.

Numerous businesses, including Udaan, Cars24, and Pharmeasy, among others, have raised debt from international investors as the general funding situation becomes bleak. According to experts, this debt is convertible into equity and is classified senior debt, which means it is ranked above other debt holders or lenders. With the aid of this financing, these businesses are able to weather the financial crisis and wait until the global investment climate recovers.

The Business:

Amod Malaviya, Sujeet Kumar, and Vaibhav Gupta, three former employees of Flipkart, founded Udaan in 2016. It provides a platform for traders, wholesalers, retailers, and manufacturers to connect, find customers, suppliers, and products across categories, and engage with one another directly for the best deals.

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