Series E fund: DealShare raises $165 m in fresh round of funding

Three-year-old social e-commerce start-up DealShare has announced it has raised $165 million in the first close of its Series E fund raise. The new investors include Dragoneer Investments Group, Kora Capital and Unilever Ventures. Existing investors are Tiger Global and Alpha Wave Global (Falcon Edge).

The company expects to hit $1-billion revenues in the near term and says the funds raised in this round will be used to invest in technology and data science, as well as a 10-fold expansion in logistics infrastructure, beside increasing geographic reach. In addition, it will establish a sizable offline store franchise network.

DealShare has built a new disruptive retail model for India focusing on affordability for mass consumers. It offers high-quality, low-priced essentials coupled with a gamified, virality-driven shopping experience, making it easy for first-time internet users to experience online shopping.

Commenting on the latest funding round, Vineet Rao, founder & CEO, DealShare, said: “DealShare is one of the fastest growing e-commerce companies in India. Our revenues and customer base have grown 13 times in the last year with improving profitability. With a strong customer base of over 10 million, we have expanded our geographical presence to over 100 cities across 10 states. Our company has created job opportunities for over 5,000 persons across the country,” adding, “We will be using the proceeds from the round to invest heavily into technology, improving the supply chain and expanding our footprint throughout the country. We will also invest in acquiring best-in-class technologies and marquee brands that are focused on the mass market.”

Griffin Schroeder, partner, Tiger Global, said, “DealShare is growing rapidly and has built an impressive customer base with a strong leadership team executing on its innovative social commerce strategy. As it expands into Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, DealShare is well positioned to power a new wave of e-commerce growth in India.”

Sharing his vision for the company’s growth trajectory, Sourjyendu Medda, founder and chief business officer, DealShare, said: “This year, we will be expanding our presence to well over 200 cities across 20 states and are setting an audacious goal to increase our annual revenue run rate to $3 billion while becoming operationally profitable. We also aim to add close to 50 million new consumers in the next 12 months.”

DealShare operates over 100 warehouses in the 10 states it operates in, and plans to expand its warehousing from 2 million square feet today to 20 million square feet over the next 12 months.

Navroz D Udwadia, co-founder and partner, Alpha Wave Global, added, “We are pleased to invest in this round and continue our support.”