DealShare raises $21M in Series C funding led by WestBridge Capital

Mumbai: DealShare, one of India’s fastest-growing e-commerce companies, founded by Vineet Rao, Sourjyendu Medda, Sankar Bora and Rajat Shikhar, announced today its Series C funding round of $21 million led by WestBridge Capital, with participation from Alpha Wave Incubation – a venture fund managed by Falcon Edge Capital, Z3Partners and existing investors Matrix Partners India and Omidyar Network India. This round also saw investment from select independent angel investors. With the current round, the total funding raised by DealShare in the last 2 years stands at $34 million.
Since its inception in 2018, DealShare has built a highly differentiated model in India’s e-commerce industry. The Company has successfully targeted into India’s fast-growing, mid-income demographic of 500 million new-to-internet users. DealShare’s robust model has solved for positive unit economics in an industry that has not witnessed positive unit economics despite upwards of $15 billion+ of invested capital.
Much of DealShare’s success is attributed to its differentiated first-principles business building that spans target audience, sourcing, customer acquisition and fulfilment including last-mile distribution. DealShare is already clocking revenues of $45 million+ with $7 million of capital invested.
While India’s e-commerce industry has primarily focussed on high-income customers, DealShare is rapidly developing into the go-to platform for value-conscious customers. DealShare will use the capital proceeds for the next phase of its growth which will include expanding to newer geographies, penetrating deeper into current markets, scaling operations, expanding local sourcing networks and strengthening its technology platform across business verticals.
Commenting on the fundraise, Vineet Rao, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, DealShare, said, “This latest round of investment is a testament of our investors’ confidence in DealShare’s vision of bringing the e-commerce experience to the masses of India, especially to the low and mid-income population. We plan to use the funds to strengthen our technology platform & talent pool and scale our unique “Made-for-India” solution. Over the last two years, we have witnessed rapid adoption of our app amongst tier 2, 3 cities and will continue with this growth journey.”
“We are excited to partner with DealShare on their journey to tap the untouched potential of the e-commerce business into the mass population of the country. Majority of Indian population is currently residing in the non-metros and there is a huge business opportunity in these regions. The buying pattern of low- and middle-income group is different especially in smaller markets and DealShare seems to have understood the nuances very well. We are very impressed with how the team has scaled up in the last 2 years, while retaining a sharp focus on low cost, high impact model. What has set DealShare apart is their unique business approach and we look forward to working with the team as they further expand their presence across India”, said Sandeep Singhal, Co-founder & Managing Director, WestBridge.
“With this round of investment, we will augment our brand presence across existing and new markets. Over the next one year, we are targeting to increase our footprint to 100 cities and towns across 5 states. Along with this, we will increase our customer base to 1 crore. This investment will take us to an annual GMV of INR 2500 crores”, added Sourjyendu Medda, Founder & Chief Business Officer, DealShare.
“DealShare brings together a focused assortment that is differentially procured. This, when coupled with the delight of discovery and a gamified shopping experience, drives robust repeat usage and cohort behaviour. These factors coupled with creative first principles driven fulfilment drive exciting unit economics. We are excited to continue backing the company through its growth journey”, commented Navroz D. Udwadia, Co-Founder and Partner of Falcon Edge.
Tarun Davda, Managing Director, Matrix India said, “Be it the social-sharing led customer experience, the unique local supply partnerships or the last-mile distribution via kirana stores – DealShare has re-imagined every bit of e-commerce keeping Bharat users in mind. This is the reason that the company has been able to break the barriers of adoption and profitability in this segment. We’re privileged to have been early partners with Vineet, Sourjyendu and the team, and look forward to the next phase of growth as we welcome WestBridge & Z3Partners to the partnership.”
“The latest funding will give us the impetus to strengthen our asset-light model of supply chain and logistics. We plan to strengthen & leverage the local economy and entrepreneurs – especially in Tier – II, III and IV cities of India”, added Sankar Bora, Founder & Chief Operating Officer, DealShare.