Indian social commerce app DealShare bags $144m in Tiger Global-led round

Indian social commerce startup DealShare has raised US$144 million in its latest funding round at a valuation of US$455 million.

Tiger Global, WestBridge Capital, Alpha Wave Incubation, and Z3Partners led the new funding round. Partners at DST Global, Matrix Partners India, and Alteria Capital also made investments in the company. DealShare has raised a total of US$183 million in funding to date.

From left: Delashare founders Sankar Bora (chief operating officer), Vineet Rao (CEO), Sourjyendu Medda (chief business officer and chief financial officer) and Rajat Shikhar (chief product officer) / Photo credit: Dealshare

DealShare launched in 2018 as an ecommerce platform that operated through WhatsApp and eventually rolled out its own mobile app and website. The social ecommerce platform also gives users incentives like discounts on successive purchases when they refer products to friends. It mainly focuses on Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in India.

The platform currently has over 3 million registered users across five states of India and has close to 700,000 monthly active users.

DealShare founder and CEO Vineet Rao told Tech in Asia that active users on its platform use the app more than 40 times a month.

He said the company was also focusing on building communities on instant messaging apps. DealShare has close to 50,000 members in its WhatsApp and Telegram communities, Rao added.

What’s next

According to a press note, the company will use the freshly raised funds to invest in improving and scaling up its operations. It aims to expand its footprint from a current count of 20 warehouses in five states to over 200 warehouses across 10 states by the end of this year.

DealShare will also strengthen its technology team, which currently has 40 members, Rao said. He expects that the headcount will triple by the end of 2021.

The company is also looking to expand its operations outside India, and is set to establish its first international footprint in the United Arab Emirates.

Over the next couple of months, DealShare will open a technology center and set up business and tech teams in Abu Dhabi. Rao estimates that the company’s operations in the capital city will be up and running by the last quarter of this year.

Rise of social commerce

According to a Bain & Company report, social commerce in India is expected to be worth up to US$20 billion in total gross merchandise value by 2025 and hit US$70 billion by 2030.