Catamaran Ventures in talks to invest in B2B e-commerce platform Udaan

Catamaran Ventures, the private investment firm of Infosys' co-founder N R Narayana Murthy, is in talks to invest in B2B e-commerce platform Udaan, according to sources.

Catamaran is looking at investing about Rs 80-100 crore in Udaan, and the transaction will be made through a secondary route by purchasing employees' stocks, the sources close to the development said.

Discussions are at an advanced stage and the deal is likely to be closed over the next few weeks, they added.

E-mails sent to Catamaran Ventures did not elicit a response. A spokesperson for Udaan said the company does not comment on market rumours or premature transactions.

In January, Udaan raised USD 280 million (about Rs 2,048 crore) in funding from investors, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Tencent, DST Global, GGV Capital, Altimeter Capital, Octahedron Capital and Moonstone Capital. The company, which has raised USD 1.15 billion in total till date, was valued at over USD 3 billion post the transaction.

While Udaan does not disclose its GMV numbers, a report by Bernstein stated that the company's GMV was at about USD 2.1 billion ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) in December 2020.

GMV is a term used in online retailing to indicate the Gross Merchandise Value of products sold through the marketplace over a certain period of time.

Udaan -- which has 30 lakh businesses on its platform -- has operations across categories, including lifestyle, electronics, home and kitchen, staples, fruits and vegetables, FMCG, pharma, toys and general merchandise. Of these 30 lakh, 17 lakh are small retailers, including kirana shops, chemist shops, small hotels and restaurants,.

Interestingly, Catamaran Ventures has a joint venture with Amazon in Cloudtail -- a large seller on Amazon India's online retail marketplace.

An investment in Udaan is expected to help Catamaran further consolidate its presence in the e-commerce space in the country that has been witnessing a strong growth, especially over the past many months as people embraced contactless e-commerce deliveries amid the COVID-19 pandemic.