Udaan names co-founder Vaibhav Gupta as CEO
Udaan, India’s largest B2B e-commerce platform, has appointed Vaibhav Gupta, one of its three co-founders, as CEO. The firm said this was in line with its IPO plans in the next 18-24 months. The two other co-founders — Amod Malviya and Sujeet Kumar — as board members will work with Gupta to ensure the organisation transitions to a Ceo-led structure.
Udaan, India’s largest b2b ecommerce platform, has appointed Vaibhav Gupta, one of its three co-founders, as CEO. The firm said this was in line with its IPO plans in the next 18-24 months.
The two other co-founders — Amod Malviya and Sujeet Kumar — as board members will work with Gupta to ensure the organization transitions to a Ceo-led structure.
The company said its main aim behind the move was to capitalise on the enormous growth opportunity in the Indian e-commerce market. The company was earlier headed by the three co-founders — former top Flipkart executives and friends who started business-to-business e-commerce start-up Udaan five years ago.
This comes at a time when Udaan is eyeing to tap a $100billion market in the next few years. The company is expecting most of its business opportunities to come from rural India. “I am humbled by the responsibility entrusted upon me, and I look forward to strong support from Amod (Malviya) and Sujeet (Kumar) for realising the dream that we have envisioned together,” said Vaibhav Gupta, co-founder and CEO, Udaan.
“Looking at the strong professional team that we have been able to create, and the growth scaled in such a short span, I am confident that we will be successful in realising our vision of transforming India’s massive $1-trillion trade market,” he said.
Founded with a vision to empower small and medium businesses of the country, Gupta said Udaan had come a long way in the last five years. “As we embark on the next phase of our growth journey, it is important to lay the right foundation,” said Gupta. “It is with this objective that this structure has been created, which will help in the evolution of the organisation, enhance
agility and efficiency, drive innovation and bring us closer to the customer.”
Amod Malviya and Sujeet Kumar, co-founders of Udaan, said the Indian market offers tremendous growth potential in the b2b e-commerce space, and added that Vaibhav Gupta, with his in-depth understanding of the business, is the best person to lead the organisation.
“Over the next few years, our focus will be on strengthening governance, driving innovation, capabilities, systems and processes, with a special focus on building a talent pipeline to capitalise on the huge opportunity that rural India offers,” Malviya and Kumar said.
“What we have achieved in the last five years is just the tip of the iceberg. Together as a team, we look forward to building on what has already been created and making Udaan another world-class institution from India,” Malviya added.
This year in January, Udaan attracted $280 million in additional financing from its existing and new investors, including Lightspeed, Yuri Milner’s DST Global, and Tencent, at a valuation of over $3.1 billion. The funding is helping Udaan to strengthen its supply chain and logistics capability and serve small businesses across the country, through Udaanexpress and lending capabilities through Udaancapital.