Abhinav Khare deep dives into the role played by Udaan in empowering small businesses of India by pumping up business and creating new entrepreneurs
People, who live in isolated regions and earlier struggled to even make ends meet, are now equipped to be a part of India’s digital revolution, all thanks to Udaan which is giving more power to small businesses by pumping up business and creating new entrepreneurs. Udaan has now become the fastest growing unicorn. Founded by ex Flipkart employees Amod Malviya, Vaibhav Gupta, and Sujeet Kumar, it has disrupted India’s B2B distribution system and has moved beyond the e-commerce space.
Udaan today has spread over 900 cities and is set to solve all problems which are native to India. They believe in giving more power to small business owners. The retail industry in India is set to reach $3.6 trillion by 2020, which will increase the consumption to more than $1.1 trillion by 2021. Even though it is valued so high, the organized sector only accounts for 10%-12% of the industry and is expected to reach 22%-25% by 2021. So, there is a huge number which still remains untouched by technology, which leads to the rise of middlemen. Udaan seeks to break into this market and help remove these middlemen through a single app.
The shift to digital payment owing to demonetization and single taxation due to GST has helped Udaan grow easily coupled with the growth of technology through artificial intelligence and machine learning. Udaan’s present daily transaction is over six thousand tonnes. Udaan has surprisingly entered into very difficult markets of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Northeast India.
The biggest advantage of Udaan is that it gives a credit option to its partners. The credit ranges from one week to 15 days which gives enough time to small businesses to sort their finances. It also gives Udaan an option to partner with financial institutions in the future. They also increase credibility among buyers by their transparent and fair pricing. Udaan had raised a total funding of $870 million till now.
Udaan today is indeed powering a billion dreams. With e-commerce coupled with credit, they have been able to on-board a huge number of offline entrepreneurs which has helped them spread far and wide. They have now empowered millions of small businesses who are truly the backbone of our economy.
About Abhinav Khare
Abhinav Khare is the CEO of Asianet News Network and also the host of a daily show named Deep Dive with AK. He has a lifetime collection of books and gadgets and has already pinged more than hundred cities around the globe.
He is a tech entrepreneur, who is passionate about policy, technology, economy and philosophy from ancient India. He earned an MS Engineering from the ETH Zurich and an MBA Finance from the London Business School.
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