Social commerce startup DealShare raises $144 million from Tiger Global

• The round was co-led by WestBridge Capital, Alpha Wave Incubation and Z3Partners.
• DealShare has raised about $183 million to date since its inception in 2018.
• It primarily focuses on sale of groceries and household essential products.

Tiger Global has bet big bucks on social commerce startup DealShare, which closed its $144 million (₹1,075 crore) funding round on Thursday, July 8. The round was led by the New York-based venture capital firm and was co-led by WestBridge Capital, Alpha Wave Incubation and Z3Partners.

Partners of DST Global, Matrix Partners India and Alteria Capital also participated in this round. This marks the third funding deal for DealShare in a span of seven months. The company claims that its valuation has increased nine-fold in this same period. The Jaipur-based startup has not shared any other details about its valuation. Avendus acted as the exclusive financial advisor to DealShare on this transaction.

The startup will use this funding to invest in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven innovations to offer more personalised experiences to its customers as well as improve and scale operations. A part of the funding would also be used for DealShare’s geographical expansion. The social commerce startup aims to increase its footprint from 20 warehouses across 5 states to over 200 warehouses across 10 states by the end of 2021.

“We are proud to have a strong team of innovators who love to continually learn consumer behaviour and solve hard business problems. This has enabled DealShare to rapidly grow to $200 million GMV [Gross Merchandise Value] ARR [Annual Run Rate]... Our monthly active users already use our app over 40 times a month making it the most engaging ecommerce app and we will continue to add more innovative capabilities and services to serve a wider range of user needs,” DealShare’s chief executive and co-founder Vineet Rao said.

DealShare competes with other social commerce platforms like Meesho, CityMall and BulBul, among others. Meesho entered the unicorn club in April 2021 and has raised $515 million to date from SoftBank, Facebook and others. A unicorn, in startup parlance, is a private firm valued at or more than $1 billion.

Overall, DealShare has raised $183 million to date since its inception in 2018. The company was founded by Rajat Shikhar, Sankar Bora, Sourjyendu Medda and Rao. It primarily focuses on sale of groceries and household essential products through social media and messaging platforms like WhatsApp.

The Jaipur-based startup claims to service 1 lakh orders on a daily basis and has marked its presence in 40 Indian cities and towns. It is now aiming to expand to over 100 cities in 2021. The company further claims to have acquired 30 lakh consumers to date.

DealShare’s COO and founder Bora has emphasised that the company has over 1,000+ micro-entrepreneurs partners registered on the platform, who help sell the products online. The company targets to increase this figure to 5,000 by year end.

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