ADIA leads $210m Series E for India's DealShare
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) has contributed USD 45m to a USD 210m Series E round for Indian social e-commerce start-up DealShare at a valuation of USD 1.7bn.
Other investors include Tiger Global Management, Dragoneer Investment Group, Kora Capital, Unilever Ventures, and Alpha Wave Global. Tiger Global led a USD 144m Series D for the company in July 2021 at a valuation of USD 455m. WestBridge Capital, Z3Partners, DST Global, Matrix Partners India, Alteria Capital, and Alpha Wave Incubation also took part in that round.
The more than threefold increase in valuation reflects a broad trend in India’s technology sector and for social e-commerce specifically. Meesho, a specialist in helping women work from home as resellers, closed a USD 450m Series F in October 2021 at a valuation of USD 4.9bn. Five months earlier, it raised USD 300m at USD 2.1bn.
Founded in 2018 by Rajat Shikhar, Sankar Bora, Sourjyendu Medda and Vineet Rao, DealShare is one of India’s pioneers in community group buying. This typically involves relying on individuals within neighbourhoods to gauge and aggregate demand, place orders, and arrange bulk delivery. They receive a fee for their work. Consumers collect items themselves from local pick-up points.
DealShare, which provides groceries and consumer staples, claims its approach means fulfilment is 5-6% of the order cost compared to 20% for traditional e-commerce. Meanwhile, it costs USD 1 to acquire each additional customer versus an industry average of USD 10.
The company has 10m customers in over 100 cities across 10 states. Medda, who serves as chief business officer and CFO, said in a statement that DealShare is “arguably the fastest growing e-commerce company in India” and within touching distance of USD 1bn in gross revenue run rate. He expects to hit USD 3bn in the next 12 months.
“We will be tripling our geographical presence, investing heavily on acquiring top-notch tech talent and building world-class supply chain infrastructure to aid this growth, along with continued focus on capital efficiency and path to profitability. We are targeting operational profitability by the end of this year,” he added.
Avendus Capital was the exclusive financial advisor to DealShare on the transaction.
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