[Funding alert] DealShare raises $11 M from Matrix Partners India and Falcon Edge Capital; plans to launch operations in Maharashtra

Social commerce startup DealShare has raised $11 million in Series A round of funding led by Matrix Partners India and Falcon Edge Capital. The round also saw participation from partners of DST Global, Omidyar Network India, and few leading angel investors.

According to the statement released by the company, the funds will be utilised for city expansion, developing artificial intelligence-based solutions, and indigenous logistics network.

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Commenting on the investment, Vineet Rao, CEO and Head of Technology, said,

“We are in the process of creating the biggest ecommerce story of India. The latest funding will also give us the impetus to strengthen our asset-light, low-cost, and highly efficient logistics model. We plan to strengthen and leverage the local economy and entrepreneurs through our flagship programs such as DealShare Dost (last-mile supply chain) and DealShare Dukaan (O2O store model), eventually empowering them financially and reducing our operating costs while increasing the overall efficiency.”

Targeted at non-metro and middle-income customers in India, DealShare offers deals and discounts on daily-use products such as snacks and other food items including fruits, vegetables, and dry fruits, FMCG products such as lotions, soaps, cleaning liquids, etc., as well as household merchandise such as linen, buckets, and mops.

Navroz D Udwadia, Co-Founder and Partner of Falcon Edge commented: “Falcon Edge is excited to help drive DealShare’s mission of meeting the daily needs of an under-served customer base of 500m first time internet users. DealShare brings together a focused assortment that is differentially procured. This, when coupled with the delight of discovery and a gamified shopping experience, drives robust repeat usage and cohort behavior. These factors coupled with creative, first principles driven fulfillment drive exciting unit economics. We believe this ability to grow rapidly while demonstrating robust unit economics this early in a lifecycle is rare indeed.”

The startup, which is already present in Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Surat, Baroda, Kota, Jodhpur, Ajmer, Sikar, Sawai Madhopur and Nagaur, is also planning to expand its footprint to Maharashtra by the end of this month.

DealShare also plans to expand into 100 cities across more than 10 states in the next one year, and is expected to raise more funds very soon.

Announcing Maharashtra launch, Sourjyendu Medda, Chief Business Officer and Head of Sourcing, said: “At DealShare, we focus heavily on simplified user interface, local language, social virality, and local supplies. These pillars allow us to penetrate deeper into smaller cities and towns like no ecommerce or modern trade company has done before. With the opening of Maharashtra and other states and further penetration into Rajasthan and Gujarat, we are confident of hitting a five million customer base in six months who will buy with us multiple times a month. Our unique demand aggregation model also allows us to do B2B with a number of traders very effectively. We are in the process of converting some of our loyal trader customers to DealShare Dukaans (O2O store model) to service our end consumers more efficiently. This is ecommerce 2.0 for Bharat.”

(Edited by Megha Reddy)

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