DealShare, a regional social commerce company, has secured around $8 million (approx INR 56 crore) in its series A round of funding led by Matrix Partners India and Falcon Edge Capital. The round also saw participation from partners of DST Global, and Omidyar Network India, cited Inc42.
DealShare plans to expand into 100 cities across more than 10 states in the next one year. The fresh funds will be also utilized by DealShare for developing artificial intelligence-based solutions and indigenous logistics network.
“Majority of our customers have got introduced to ecommerce through DealShare. WhatsApp was the only application they were using regularly before DealShare. We focus heavily on simplified user interface, local language, social virality and local supplies,” Sourjyendu Medda, chief business officer at DealShare said.
DealShare was started by Vineet Rao, Sourjyendu Medda, Sankar Bora, Rishav Dev and Rajat Shikhar in September 2018. The Jaipur-headquartered startup DealShare sells grocery and household essential products through social media and messenger platforms like WhatsApp.
Social commerce involves the use of social networks to send traffic to ecommerce sites and, ultimately, drive purchases. The startup DealShare also commenced operations in September last year and focuses on middle and lower income population belonging to non-metro, Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
DealShare rewards a user based on the number of times shares a deal with friends and family who eventually buy it. The more people a user can nudge to buy, the higher his or her rewards.
“Indian consumers living in Tier 2 and below cities have long been missing out on the negotiating ability it possesses attributing to the huge population, due to lack of tools for collective buying. DealShare solves this unique problem through its app where users are able to consolidate the buying requirement among their friends and relatives and place orders on the app,” Vineet Rao, CEO and head of technology said.
Furthermore, according to Statista, over 2.14 Bn people worldwide are expected to buy goods and services online by 2021.
Some of the other significant startups under the similar roof include VMall, Bulbul, Meesho, Glowroad, Shop101, and many more.