Social e-commerce startup DealShare has announced raising USD 165 million in the first close of its series E fundraise from Dragoneer Investments Group, Kora Capital and Unilever Ventures, along with continued commitments from existing investors - Tiger Global and Alpha Wave Global (Falcon Edge).
The funding values the company at over USD 1.6 billion, a statement said.
Dealshare - which expects to hit USD 1 billion revenues in the near term - will use the funds raised to invest in technology and data science, as well as a ten-fold expansion in its logistics infrastructure, it added.
The company's annual revenue run rate has crossed USD 600 million.
The capital will also be used to increase geographic reach and establish a sizable offline store franchise network, the statement said.
Founded by Vineet Rao, Sourjyendu Medda, Sankar Bora, and Rajat Shikhar in 2018, DealShare focuses on affordability for mass consumers and offers high-quality, low-priced essentials coupled with a gamified, fun-filled, and virality-driven shopping experience, making it easy for first-time internet users to experience online shopping.
"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," Dealshare founder and CEO Vineet Rao said.
He added that the company has created job opportunities for over 5,000 persons across the country.
"We have created a network of over 1,000 community leaders under our flagship program DealShare Dost enabling an efficient and highly scalable supply chain. We will be utilising the proceeds from the round to invest heavily into technology, improving the supply chain and expanding our footprint throughout the country," Rao said.
He added that the company will also invest in acquiring best-in-class technologies and marquee brands that are focused on the mass market.
Griffin Schroeder, Partner at 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 II and III cities, DealShare is well positioned to power a new wave of e-commerce growth in India,” Schroeder added.
Sourjyendu Medda, Founder and Chief Business Officer at DealShare, noted that the company has been witnessing very high growth in its business.
"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 USD 3 billion while becoming operationally profitable. We also aim to add close to 50 million new consumers in the next 12 months,” he added.
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.
