Amod Malviya, Co-founder of the B2B ecommerce marketplace Udaan, has unveiled his new venture, Pre6. The announcement was made through a LinkedIn post on Monday, where Malviya shared an image alongside Rishi Kedia, Udaan’s former Chief Financial Officer, and Dipanjan Mukherjee, who previously worked as a software engineer at Udaan.
While details about Pre6 remain under wraps, Malviya’s post has sparked curiosity about the startup’s direction and goals.
This announcement comes months after Malviya stepped down from Udaan’s board, which he co-founded in 2016 with Vaibhav Gupta and Sujeet Kumar, both former Flipkart executives. In 2022, Malviya had already relinquished his operational role at Udaan, along with Kumar.
According to The Arc, despite stepping back, Malviya retains the right to a board seat at Udaan.
Udaan, which has faced hurdles in valuation and finances, experienced a decline in valuation from $3.2 billion in 2020 to $1.8 billion in 2023. The company also underwent layoffs last year after raising $340 million in a funding round.
In October 2023, Udaan secured ₹300 crore in debt financing from Lighthouse Canton, Stride Ventures, InnoVen Capital, and Trifecta Capital. For FY24, the company reported a slight increase of 1.72% in operating revenue to ₹5,706.6 crore and reduced its losses by 19% to ₹1,674.1 crore, attributed to cuts in marketing expenses and employee-related costs.
Malviya’s announcement follows a growing trend of seasoned entrepreneurs launching new ventures. Recently, upGrad Co-founder Mayank Kumar and OYO’s Ayush Mathur introduced their new venture, BorderPlus.
As the startup ecosystem evolves, industry watchers anticipate more experienced founders will venture into building innovative companies, shaping the next wave of Indian entrepreneurship.