B2B ecommerce marketplace Udaan’s Co-founder Amod Malviya has established a new company named Pre6, based in Bengaluru, according to a LinkedIn post shared on Monday. Malviya included a photo featuring Rishi Kedia, Udaan’s former Chief Financial Officer, alongside Dipanjan Mukherjee, who worked at Udaan as a software engineer for a year. Further information regarding the new venture has not been provided in the LinkedIn update. StartupSuperb has reached out to Malviya for additional insights about the company.
This development follows closely after Malviya’s resignation from the B2B marketplace’s board, a position he held since founding the company in 2016, along with former Flipkart executives Vaibhav Gupta and Sujeet Kumar. In 2022, he also stepped away from his operational role at the enterprise, a change that occurred alongside Kumar.
According to a report from The Arc citing sources, Malviya still retains the right to a board seat. Udaan has faced significant challenges regarding its valuation and finances. In 2023, the B2B ecommerce marketplace’s valuation decreased to $1.8 billion, down from its previous valuation of $3.2 billion in 2020. The company also laid off staff in the same year following a funding round that raised $340 million. In October of the previous year, Udaan secured Rs 300 crore in debt financing from Lighthouse Canton, Stride Ventures, InnoVen Capital, and Trifecta Capital.
The firm recorded a slight increase of 1.72% in its operating revenue for FY24, amounting to Rs 5,706.6 crore, while it managed to reduce its losses by 19% to Rs 1,674.1 crore. This improvement was attributed to reductions in marketing expenses and employee-related costs. The announcement of Malviya’s new startup arrives just days after upGrad Co-founder Mayank Kumar and OYO’s Ayush Mathur introduced BorderPlus, reflecting a broader trend of startup entrepreneurs launching new ventures.
