DealShare – Company Profile

DealShare is a fast-growing e-commerce platform headquartered in Bengaluru. It was launched in September 2018. While the e-commerce space already seems saturated, Dealshare differentiates itself by adding the social element to its platform. With Dealshare, users can form groups and get additional discounts on a wide variety of products. Something like this is not possible with the standard e-commerce platforms.

Another focus area for the company is to promote local brands as well as in-house private labels. Dealshare has initially targeted small cities and towns where e-commerce penetration is low. However, with the significant response to its social way of selling, the company is now expanding to even larger cities.

History

The idea for Dealshare came to the founders when they noticed the large segment of population that was still not using e-commerce for their daily needs such as groceries, personal care, home essentials, etc. While taking on biggies like Amazon, Flipkart, BigBasket, JioMart, etc. was a challenge, the focus on social e-commence helped the company to register strong growth.

As customer acquisition largely came through user recommendations and references, Dealshare was able to save on marketing costs. As of now, Dealshare has operations in more than 100 cities, across 10 states. It has 15 million registered customers on its platform.

Funding

Dealshare has received investments worth $624.8 million via 10 rounds of funding. Some of the key investors include Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Tiger Global Management, Alpha Wave Global, Alteria Capital, InnoVen Capital, Westbridge Capital, Falcon Capital, Omidyar Network, Matrix Partners India, DST Global Solutions, Z3Partners, Dragoneer Investments Group, Kora Capital and Unilever Ventures. In the funding round executed in January 2022 by Tiger Global and Alpha Wave Global, the company received $165 million (Rs 1,239 crore). With this, Dealshare valuation increased to $1.6 billion, achieving the coveted title of Unicorn.

Acquisitions

Dealshare has not made any acquisitions in recent times.

Competitors

Dealshare competes with other e-commerce players such as Citymall, Meesho and HomeShop18.

About the Founders

Dealshare was founded by Vineet Rao, Sourjyendu Medda, Sankar Bora and Rajat Shikhar. Vineet currently serves as the CEO and CTO at Dealshare. He had earlier founded other companies as well such as Shopwest and SpectraVR Studios Pvt Ltd. He has also worked with other companies such as SilkCloud and Microsoft. Vineet is an alumnus of IIT Bombay.

Co-founder Sourjyendu Medda currently serves as the Chief Business Officer and Chief Financial Officer. He had earlier worked with companies like J.K. Helene Curtis Ltd., Metro Cash & Carry, Citibank and Britannia Industries Limited.

Co-founder Sankar Bora currently serves as the COO of the company. He had earlier worked with companies like AEON Learning, MiraiStore and Myntra. Co-founder Rajat Shikhar currently serves as the Chief Product Officer. He had earlier worked with Foodpanda, GoFro, Buzzl and Thoughtworks.