Founders on a journey to turn Udaan global

India's largest business-to-business e-commerce platform is gearing up for an IPO

- PEERZADA ABRAR

Nine months ago, three friends Amod Malviya, Sujeet Kumar and Vaibhav Gupta, who founded Udaan in 2016, again reached a turning point, where they had to make a crucial decision for the firm.

The company has become India's largest business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce platform amid the pandemic. The former top Flipkart executives had an intense discussion about how to achieve their next audacious goal turning Udaan into a publicly-listed entity in 18-24 months and becoming a large global public company.

The three co-founders came up with a strategy of having a sharp focus on positive unit economics and behaving like a 'publicly-listed company' by tracking 'quarter-on-quarter' performance.

"We are feeling good about the changes that we made. We are feeling that it was the right call and it has made us stronger. It is a muscle that we are building in the company that is needed for a successful IPO (initial public offering)," said Vaibhav Gupta, co-founder, and CEO of Udaan.

He added, "From the last three quarters, we have improved not just our unit economics but also profitability. We have a very strong handle over our cash flow through these times."

Positive unit economics cover all the direct variable costs associated with servicing an order, according to the experts.