Thanks to its massive population and growing digital footprint, India has become a gargantuan opportunity for ecommerce, attracting players like Amazon and Walmart to expand their presence in one of the biggest internet markets in the world. This has also given rise to a growth in indigenous ecommerce solutions, like the platform DealShare, which has raised $21 million in a Series C funding round.
The round was led by WestBridge Capital, and also saw participation from Alpha Wave Incubation – a venture fund managed by Falcon Edge Capital, Z3Partners and existing investors Matrix Partners India and Omidyar Network India, along with some angel investors.
The startup was founded in 2018 by Vineet Rao, Sourjyendu Medda, Sankar Bora and Rajat Shikha and has managed to raise $34 million in just 2 years. As of today, it boasts a rather impressive portfolio of 500 million new to internet users, and is already clocking revenues upward of $45 million, with $7 million of capital invested. The startup caters to about 25 thousand orders on a daily basis and is adding lacs of consumers already month.
While India has seen a massive surge in the number of people moving online, it still remains an offline dominant country when it comes to shopping. Platforms like Amazon and Flipkart, while hugely successful in the country, cater to high income households, according to DealShare, and that alienates a huge part of Indian society. This is what the startup aims to solve, by becoming the go to solution for value conscious customers.
“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,” the company said in a press release.
It plans on using these new funds 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. It already has a presence in 25+ cities and towns across Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka and plans to expand to 100+ cities in 2021.
Moreover, the startup has partnered with 1000 brands, of which 70% are local and regional. It plans on forging even more alliances, and is looking to partner with about 5000+ local brands in 2021.
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.”
