Matrix Partners India co-leads a $11M investment in social commerce platform DealShare

10th October, 2019. Mumbai/Bangalore: Matrix Partners India announced today that it has co-led with Falcon Edge a $11M round of investment across Seed and Series A rounds, in social commerce app DealShare. The startup is focused on grocery and home categories targeted at the middle and lower income populations, belonging to Tier 2 and 3 cities of India.

The round also saw participation from partners of DST Global, Omidyar Network, along with other leading angel investors.

The main motto behind DealShare is "Buy more, save more and buy with friends and save even more' which is targeted at the next 500 million new internet users who have recently come online. It is a platform that offers products of daily use such as food and grocery items including fruits, vegetables, and dry fruits, FMCG products such as lotions, soaps, cleaning liquids, etc., as well as household merchandise such as linen, buckets, and mops. Products are sourced directly from local manufacturers & suppliers and every item on DealShare is offered at a deep discount, giving buyers the opportunity to gain further price reductions when they engage in group buying with friends and family members.

Founded by five dynamic entrepreneurs whose combined experience across various fields helped build out this unique social commerce model; Vineet Rao, former Microsoft techie; Sourjyendu Medda, former Sales Head, Metro Cash & Carry; Sankar Bora, former Co-founder & VP Operations, Myntra; Rishav Dev, former VP Operations, Grofers and Rajat Shikhar, former Chief Product Officer, Foodpanda.

DealShare is currently serving more than 3 lakh customers in the cities of Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Surat, Baroda, Kota, Jodhpur, Ajmer, Sikar, Sawai Madhopur and Nagpur, with plans to launch in Maharashtra by the end of this month.

The freshly infused capital will be used for geographic expansion, as well as developing artificial intelligence based solutions and growing an indigenous logistics network.

Apart from local and unique supply, Dealshare is also focused on a gamified user experience, with a demand aggregation based Consumer to Business (C2B) model, as well as an innovative multi-modal logistics model, in order to be able to serve this segment profitably. They are currently at a 50% month on month growth rate and service more than 15,000 orders per day.

Commenting on the growth of DealShare, Vineet Rao, Chief Executive Officer & Head of Technology said, "We are in the process of creating the biggest e-commerce story of India. E-commerce 1.0 focused on bringing the western model to the country and brought in a lot of investments and infrastructure. However, those models were mostly focused on top tier population residing in Metro cities. Indian consumers living in tier 2 & 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. This, in turn, enables us to do a backward integration with suppliers and manufacturers for sourcing at the best rates. The latest funding will also give us the impetus to strengthen our asset-light, low-cost and highly efficient logistics model. We plan to strengthen & leverage the local economy and entrepreneurs through our flagship programs such as DealShare Dost (last-mile supply chain) and DealShare Dukaan (O2O store model), eventually empowering them financially and reducing our operating costs while increasing the overall efficiency.'

Announcing Maharashtra launch, Sourjyendu Medda, Chief Business Officer and Head of Sourcing said, "In just one year of operations, we have serviced more than 1.5 million orders from 3 lakh consumers. Majority of our customers have got introduced to e-commerce 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. These pillars allow us to penetrate deeper into smaller cities and towns like no e-commerce or modern trade company has done before. With the opening of Maharashtra & other states and further penetration into Rajasthan and Gujarat, we are confident of hitting a 5 million customer base in six months who will buy with us multiple times a month! Our unique demand aggregation model also allows us to do B2B with a number of traders very effectively. We are in the process of converting some of our loyal trader customers to DealShare Dukaans (O2O store model) to service our end consumers more efficiently. This is E-commerce 2.0 for Bharat.'

Navroz D. Udwadia, Co-Founder and Partner of Falcon Edge said, "Falcon Edge is excited to help drive DealShare's mission of meeting the daily needs of an under-served customer base of 500m first time internet users. DealShare brings together a focused assortment that is differentially procured. This when coupled with the delight of discovery and a gamified shopping experience, drives robust repeat usage and cohort behavior. These factors coupled with creative, first principles driven fulfilment drive exciting unit economics. We believe this ability to grow rapidly while demonstrating robust unit economics this early in a lifecycle is rare indeed.'

Tarun Davda, Managing Director, Matrix India, said, "It is still day 0 for e-commerce in India. The DealShare team with its deep understanding of consumer buying behaviour and a unique model caters to the largest chunk of consumers in India, the middle and lower income households. It's a pleasure to partner with Vineet, Sankar and Sourjyendu on this journey.'

About DealShare:
DealShare is an incredibly disruptive social e-commerce model objectified towards re-inventing e-retail for the next billion users. Headquartered in Jaipur and with offices in Bangalore and Ahmedabad, DealShare, a B2C hyperlocal e-retail business, was established in September 2018. Founded by five dynamic entrepreneurs who worked with exceptional companies and startups and possess expertise in Tech, Sales, Operations and Product Development. DealShare is currently operational in major cities of Rajasthan & Gujarat and opening soon in Maharashtra. Focused on the new 'WhatsApp first' India, DealShare offers amazing discounts when one buys together with friends while offering options like free home delivery and cash on delivery. More information can be found here www.dealshare.in

About Matrix Partners India:
Matrix Partners India is an investment firm with approximately $1 billion under management. Founded in 2006, the firm invests in companies targeting the Indian consumer and enterprise market at the seed, early and early growth stages. Matrix India has invested in several market leading companies such as Ola (local transportation), Quikr (online classifieds), Practo (digital health platform), Dailyhunt (mobile local language platform), Stanza Living (student housing), Treebo (digital hotel chain), Limeroad (social e-commerce platform), Mswipe (mobile POS), Five Star Business Finance (SME lending), OfBusiness (credit led B2B marketplace), Ola Electric Mobility (multimodal electric vehicle platform), Vogo (scooter sharing), and Belong (recruitment platform) among others. Matrix India has advisory offices in Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai. Matrix Partners has a global network of funds investing in the US, China and India, with approximately $5 billion under management. Further information is available at www.matrixpartners.in