Udaan Group CFO quits amid senior-level rejig

Homegrown B2B e-commerce platform Udaan has seen another top-level exit as its Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Aditya Pande who has decided to pursue opportunities outside of the company after three years.

The CFO's role will now be taken care of by Kiran Thadimarri, Group Finance Controller, and Vishnu Menon, who heads corporate strategy and investor relations (IR), the company said on Monday.

"I would like to thank Pande for his invaluable contribution to the organisation and wish him the very best in his future endeavours,” said Vaibhav Gupta, CEO and co-founder, Udaan.

Thadimarri has been elevated to executive management team with additional responsibility of treasury, corporate finance, and corporate audit.

Menon will take on the additional responsibility of business finance, as part of the organisational changes.

"Both Kiran and Vishnu will work towards further strengthening the financial and governance practices at Udaan with the objective of enabling the company to achieve operational profitability and public market readiness in the next 12-18 months," the company said in a statement.

In September last year, the startup's Chief Business Officer (CBO) Vivek Gupta and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Gaurav Bhalotia had left as the company merged its essentials business with the discretionary business.

Udaan's valuation has dropped by nearly half to around $1.8 billion in a down round. The Bengaluru-based startup was last valued at $3.2 billion in January 2021, according to latest reports.

Last month, the B2B e-commerce platform raised $340 million (a mix of equity and convertible notes) in a Series E round led by UK-based savings and investment firm M&G Prudential, and participated by existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and DST Global.

The fresh funding "enables our continued journey of growth and profitability, positioning us well to be public-market ready in the next 12-18 months", said Gupta.

In the same month, Udaan had laid off more than 100 employees as part of a restructuring exercise.