DealShare: Connecting India With the Best Deals

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India’s eCommerce market has seen rapid growth in the last decade, while the similar is still growing. With business giants like Amazon, Flipkart, Meesho, Swiggy, and more, a widened pathway has been built faster than the actual roads in and around the cities of India.  

An alike competitor stepped up in 2018 by the name of DealShare and soon became a unicorn. It was a blessing for the Indians living in rural areas and still is. Targeting the right audience, DealShare allows its customers to share deals, and then offer discounts as per the demand of the product.  

Let's take a look at the extravagant journey that the company has made through time. 

DealShare - Company Highlights 

DealShare - About
DealShare - Industry
DealShare - Founders and Team
DealShare - Startup Story
DealShare - Mission and Vision
DealShare - Name, Tagline, and Logo
DealShare - Business Model
DealShare - Challenges Faced
DealShare - Funding and Investors
DealShare - Growth
DealShare - Awards and Achievements
DealShare - Competitors
DealShare - Future Plans

DealShare - About

A hyperlocal online buying platform that in the beginning operated through WhatsApp, aims at non-metro and rural markets. In the year 2020, DealShare raised USD 2 million through a financing round and expanded to a hundred cities and towns in the country. 

The product categories that are covered by this platform are grocery items, fruits and vegetables, beauty as well as wellness products, baby care, home décor, electronics, and more. DealShare keeps on promoting various offers as well as discount coupons. These coupons can be used from mobile apps or on their official websites. 

DealShare - Industry

With India introduced to digital platforms in recent years, the country has been growing tremendously within the same niche. The eCommerce industry in the South Asian country saw high gains in the financial year 2022-23. 

The online market in India is regarded as the second largest market in the world, having more than 950 million users. Almost 100% of pin codes in the country have registered deliveries from eCommerce platforms. Even in the tier-2 and tier-3 cities, the eCommerce market is booming as three out of every five shoppers are from these regions. 

DealShare - Founders and Team

Jaipur was the first-ever headquarters of DealShare when it began operations through WhatsApp groups in the year 2018. The company embarked on its journey with a mere 100-150 customers and was formed by four brilliant minds, Rajat Shikhar, Sankar Bora, Sourjyendu Medda, and Vineet Rao. 

Rajat Shikhar

The alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee is one of the four co-founders of DealShare. With being the Chief Product Officer at DealShare the shining personality previously played the same role while working with Foodpanda until 2018. 

Rajat has a degree in B.Tech and has completed his MBA in marketing from the Indian Institute of Management, Indore. 

Sankar Bora

His profile might put you in awe, as Sankar has achieved a lot in his life. Showcasing his talent, Sankar Bora while being the co-founder and previous Chief Operating Officer of DealShare, is also a co-founder of Myntra fashion eCommerce company. 

Alumnus of the National Institute of Technology Calicut, Bora even launched an ed-tech company called AEON Learning and is again a co-founder of Miraistore.

Vineet Rao

Before he began his journey as a founder with DealShare, Vineet Rao founded a cross-border eCommerce platform, Shopwest in 2016 and SpectraVR Studios a year before in 2015.  

The man is a technology leader when it comes to social databases as well as within the field of AI-based personal assistants. He is an alumnus of IIM, Bombay. 

Sourjyendu Medda

Another appealing person in the group of founders of DealShare is Sourjyendu Medda. He has spent over 15 years learning with retail and FMCG organizations. Medda completed his B.E. from Jamshedpur and then became a gold medalist by completing his MBA in marketing from IIM Bombay. 

Having a track record of business management skills within the marketing, CRM, pricing as well as sales and operations niche, Medda serves his interest in providing affordable consumption of products for the lower and middle-income population. 

However, three of the four founders have quit their journey with DealShare. Last year Vineet Rao and Shankar Bora resigned from their position, and in the early days of 2024, even Sourjyendu Medda stepped down from the position of CEO.
Kamaldeep Singh has since taken over as the new CEO of DealShare.

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DealShare - Startup Story

It was the common interest of the four founders of DealShare to serve the untouched market within the country that served the requirements of middle and lower-income populations. DealShare came into action in 2018, with its first headquarters being in Jaipur, Rajasthan. 

In its early years, DealShare operated through WhatsApp groups and had no application. And during this period the deliveries were only made on weekends, while the whole week was spent gathering the orders. 

The founders began with DealShare and promoted the concept of group buying and community-driven selling. 

DealShare - Mission and Vision

Mission: DealShare's mission is to target the new 500 million users in non-metro and rural markets who haven’t shopped enough online and who are still not comfortable on other platforms.

Vision: DealShare’s vision is to make shopping more affordable and convenient for Indian consumers. DealShare aims to serve the middle and lower income class of India. It also aims to give them a range of options while buying products. 

DealShare - Name, Tagline, and Logo

With the tagline "India ki sabse sasti dukaan," they have expanded and maintained a large customer base, having exponential growth even during the challenging times of COVID-19.

DealShare - Business Model

DealShare has an innovative business model that is based on group buying and community-driven selling. The company proposes a platform where users can avail discounts on various products by sharing deals with their relatives and friends. 

DealShare - Challenges Faced

As of the year 2024, the company faced quite a few challenges. These challenges ranged in various aspects. DealShare had its struggle with shuttering warehouses, implementing layoffs, as well as scaling down operations in various states. 

The most upsetting challenge was when Vineet Rao decided to step down from the position of CEO. There were no details about his resignation but it did happen during a critical time.  

DealShare - Funding and Investors

Dealshare has received a total funding of USD 390.3 million over 7 rounds. The investors involved were Tiger Global Management, Alpha Wave Incubation, Matrix Partners India, West Bridge Capital, and a few more. 

DealShare - Growth

In FY24, DealShare experienced significant changes following the departure of three co-founders in their last fiscal year, which visibly impacted the financial performance of the company. The grocery-focused eCommerce platform reported a massive dip in its revenue from operations, which dropped to INR 499 crore in FY24 from INR 1,963.5 crore in FY23. That is a whopping decline of 74.6%. 

DealShare's Total Expense also fell by 70%, reaching INR 768.18 crore in FY24, down from INR 2,557.6 crore in FY23. Despite the decline in operating revenue, DealShare managed to reduce its losses by 66.6%, with losses narrowing to INR 167.7 crore in FY24 from INR 502.7 crore in FY23.

DealShare - Awards and Achievements

DealShare received the following awards and recognitions:

• Social Commerce Startup of the Year 2022
• Recognized as the most valuable Indian Unicorn in 2022 by Global Data Thematic Research
• Featured in the 2022 LinkedIn Top Startups list

DealShare - Competitors

The main competitors of DealShare are as mentioned below:

• Flipkart
• Bulbul
• GlowRoad
• CityMall
• Meesho
• SimSim
• Mall91

DealShare - Future Plans

DealShare announced its plan in the middle of 2023 that the company will invest to strengthen its private labels and local and regional brands. The company plans to execute this plan within the next five years. 

FAQs

Who are the founders of DealShare?

Vineet Rao, Rajat Shikhar, Sourjyendu Medda, and Sankar Bora founded DealShare in 2018.

What does DealShare do?

DealShare is an eCommerce platform that targets middle and low-income audiences and is based on group buying and community-driven selling. 

Who are the main competitors of DealShare?

The main competitors of DealShare include:

• Flipkart
• Bulbul
• GlowRoad
• CityMall
• Meesho
• SimSim
• Mall91