India’s social ecommerce startup DealShare raises $144m

DealShare, a social ecommerce startup in India, announced raising $144 million in a Series D funding round led by New York-based investment firm Tiger Global.

The funding round, which brings the total funding raised by DealShare to $183 million, was also co-anchored by WestBridge Capital, Alpha Wave Incubation, and Z3 Partners. DST Global, Matrix Partners India, and Alteria Capital also participated.

The latest deal marks the third funding for the company in a span of seven months, with the valuation increasing nine-fold at $455 million post-funding.

DealShare said it will use the funds to build its team and expand globally, starting with the UAE. It is establishing its first base in Abu Dhabi.

Currently, DealShare is present in more than 40 cities and towns across Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Delhi NCR and it plans to expand to more than 100 cities this year.

“We would be utilizing the funds primarily to invest in AI-driven innovations in our user experience leading to a highly personalized, fun-filled, and gamified experience,” said Vineet Rao, CEO and Founder of DealShare.

Rao added that the company will continue to add more innovative capabilities and services to serve a wider range of user needs and invest in improving and scaling its operations rapidly.

“We expect our footprint to increase from current 20 warehouses across 5 states to over 200 warehouses across 10 states by end of this year,” he stressed.

DealShare said it has built a new disruptive retail model for India with a focus on the affordability and price component for the mass consumers.

It offers high-quality, low-priced essentials coupled with a gamified, fun, and virality-driven vernacular shopping experience that makes it easy for first-time internet users to experience online shopping.

The company has acquired more than 3 million consumers and adding lakhs of new consumers every month. DealShare caters to about 1 lakh orders on a daily basis.

Since their inception, their focus has been to procure products from local manufacturers and provide them with a platform to digitize their business and compete with lead brands.