Indian E-Commerce Unicorns 2022: DealShare Looking to Double its Market Reach

According to a Bain report, the social commerce in India is expected to grow from $1.5-$2 billion market in 2022 to as much as $20 billion in five years. The report expects this market to grow to $70 billion by 2030, making India’s social commerce sector twice the size of the current e-commerce market within 10 years. The high growth market has attracted several players who are managing to hit unicorn status due to their ability to create a massive user base. One such player is DealShare.

DealShare’s Offerings

Founded in 2018 by Rajat Shikhar, Sankar Bora, Sourjyendu Medda, and Vineet Rao, DealShare is a fast-growing social e-commerce startup for multi-category consumer products that focuses on the new “WhatsApp first” India. It targets the more than 500 million users in non-metro and rural markets in the country who are yet to experience shopping online due to infrastructure issues, or those who are also still not comfortable on other platforms.

DealShare is known as the pioneer of the community buying group (CGB) model in India. It allows users to buy and share deals with friends, with discounts based on the number of people purchasing the products. Its simple and intuitive user interface also offers customers best prices on these deals. The company’s product catalogue includes fruits and vegetables, grocery items, beauty and wellness, baby care, fashion accessories, electronics, home decor, and more. It has created a network of more than 1000 small and medium manufacturers in the grocery and essential space to help build its product offering.

The company has attracted a customer base of over 10 million users and has expanded its geographical presence to over 100 cities across 10 states. It plans to increase its presence to over 200 cities across 20 states, adding Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities to the mix. It hopes to increase its customer base by 50 million new customers in the next 12 months.

DealShare’s Financials

DealShare does not share detailed financials. But in a recent report, it projected plans to hit $1 billion in revenues in the near term from the current annual run rate of over $600 million. DealShare did not share its profitability figures, but it operates in a very low margin sector that relies on high volumes to translate to a successful financial model.

DealShare has raised $624.8 million in 10 rounds of funding led by Abu Dhabi Investments Authority, Twenty Nine Capital Partners, DF International Partners, Tiger Global Management, Alpha Wave Global, Kora, Unilever Ventures, Dragoneer Investment Group, DST Global, and Z3 Partners. Its most recent round was held in February 2022 where it raised $165 million at a valuation of $1.7 billion. A funding round held a year ago had valued the company at $455 million.

DealShare planned to use the latest funding to continue to drive growth through investment in technology and data science as well as a ten-fold expansion in its logistics infrastructure and geographic presence. The company was evaluating the option of setting up an offline presence in the country as well.

India’s booming ecommerce and social commerce market has attracted a slew of vendors wanting to cash in on the boom. DealShare faces competition from several other similar players such as CityMall, Bulbul.tv and Meesho to name a few. DealShare will need to remain on top of the deal game to ensure customer loyalty.

Photo Credit: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

This segment is a part in the series : Indian E-Commerce Unicorns 2022