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Business to business (B2B) e-commerce platform Udaan said on September 10 that one of its co-founders, Vaibhav Gupta, will take over as CEO, a move that it said is in line with the evolution needed to become a publicly listed company in 18-24 months.
While Gupta takes charge as CEO, the other two co-founders, Amod Malviya and Sujeet Kumar, as board members will work with him to ensure that the organisation transitions to a CEO- led structure, the company said. The changes will be effective September 10, 2021.
So far, there wasn’t a CEO structure in place with the three co-founders divvying up responsibilities. The move also comes at a time when it is facing competition from other merchant-focused marketplaces such as Infra.Market and OfBusiness.
Udaan, which is valued at over $3 billion, became a unicorn in September 2018. It counts investors such as Lightspeed, DST Global, Altimeter Capital and Tencent.
Vaibhav Gupta, Co-founder & CEO, Udaan, said: “ 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.”
“I am humbled by the responsibility that has been entrusted to me, and I look forward to strong support from Amod and Sujeet for realising the dream that we have envisioned together,” he added.
Amod Malviya and Sujeet Kumar, Co-founders, Udaan, said: “We are delighted that Vaibhav has agreed to be the captain of the ship and steer Udaan towards the future. Together as a team, we look forward to building on what has already been created and making Udaan another world-class institution from India.”
Udaan said it has invested more than Rs 4,000 crore in the past 12-18 months across different pillars of business – technology, supply chain, category, credit, people, compliance – to accelerate and strengthen capabilities to serve its customers better.
Founded in 2016 by three former executives of Flipkart, it has operations across categories including lifestyle, electronics, home & kitchen, staples, fruits & vegetables, FMCG, pharma, toys and general merchandise.
Udaan said it has over 3 million users, 1.7 million retailers and 30,000 sellers on the platform across the country.
The platform enables supply chain & logistics operations, focused on b2b trade and built on strong technology, for daily delivery across 900+ cities and 12,000+ pin codes through udaanExpress.
It enables financial products and services to small businesses, manufacturers, and retailers through udaanCapital to grow their business.
The restructuring however comes at a time when the Bengaluru-based startup is facing allegations of monopolising distribution of goods to retailers from some of India’s largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) makers. Companies like Amul and Parle Products have stopped supplying goods directly to Udaan, according to a report in The Economic Times.
Last week, Udaan had also filed a complaint with the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against Parle Products, alleging that the firm was abusing its dominant position by refusing to supply its products directly to the startup.
In the complaint, the company said it was purchasing Parle products from the open market which places them at a competitive disadvantage as compared to other distributors who could directly source these products. This had also resulted in higher costs for the firm as well as sellers who source their products from Udaan.
