City-based startup DealShare raises $11 mn to expand ops

Jaipur: The Pink City-headquartered social e-commerce startup DealShare has raised $11 million across Series A and seed rounds of funding led by Matrix Partners India and Falcon Edge Capital. DST Global, Omidyar Network India and a few leading angel investors also participated in the round.

The startup, which started operations last September, sells grocery and household essentials through social virality model with focus on middle and lower income population in non-metro, tier-II and tier-III cities and plans to rapidly scale up operations in India.

Founded by five entrepreneurs having almost 100 years of combined experience in tech and startup ecosystem, DealShare currently has more than three lakh customers in Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Surat, Baroda, Kota, Jodhpur, Ajmer, Sikar, Sawai Madhopur and Nagaur. It is planning to enter Maharashtra by the end of this month.

Vineet Rao, CEO & head of technology, said, “Indian consumers in tier-II and below cities have long been missing out on the negotiating ability due to lack of tools for collective buying. DealShare app offers a platform where they are able to consolidate the buying requirement among their friends and relatives and place orders. This enables us to do a backward integration with suppliers and manufacturers for sourcing at deep discounts.”

Rao said the fresh funds will be utilized for footprint expansion, developing artificial intelligence-based solutions and indigenous logistics network. “DealShare will expand into 100 cities across more than 10 states in next one year and is expected to raise more funds very soon.”

The company plans to strengthen its asset-light, low-cost and efficient logistics model while creating local entrepreneurs for last-mile supply chain and DealShare Dukaan (O2O store model). “Eventually, this will empower the local entrepreneurs financially and reduce our operating costs while increasing the overall efficiency,” added Rao.