Exclusive: Tiger Global set to lead $100 Mn round in DealShare

The Tiger Global juggernaut keeps rolling and it’s raining money for India’s startups. The formidable hedge fund has become the chief unicorn maker in India with four in 2021 and is in talks with several growth-stage startups for potential investments. 

DealShare is one of them and the social commerce platform is in late-stage talks with Tiger Global to raise a new round, according to three people aware of the details of the transaction. 

“Terms of the deal are almost finalised and the company would end up raising anywhere between $70 to 100 million led by Tiger,” said one of the sources requesting anonymity as the talks are private.

This would be the fourth institutional round for the Jaipur-based company. In December last year, it had raised a $21 million Series C round co-led by WestBridge Capital and Alpha Wave Incubation. As of now, the company has mopped up over $35 million in risk capital.

According to sources, Tiger Global could value the three-year-old company at over $400 million in the potential round. 

DealShare and Tiger declined to offer comment for the story while Entrackr’s queries sent to WestBridge and Matrix didn’t elicit any immediate response. 

Founded by Sankar Bora, Vineet Rao, Sourjyendu Medda, Rishav Dev and Rajat Shikhar, DealShare specifically targets non-metro and middle-income customers with mass-market products. The startup sources products of daily use, especially grocery, directly from local manufacturers and suppliers.

The platform offers discounts and cashback to consumers where they can earn money by sharing app links to friends via WhatsApp. It mainly targets 25 cities including Rajasthan, UP, Maharashtra and Karnataka. With this round, the company is likely to expand its footprints across 100 cities in 2021.

DealShare competes with Accel Partners-backed CityMall. The Gurugram-based company had announced an $11 million round from Elevation Capital, Accel and others in late March. 

Entrackr had exclusively reported CityMall’s funding in mid-February.

Unlike most of its peers, DealShare was close to becoming profitable in FY20. According to Fintrackr, DealShare had recorded Rs 58.71 crore in revenue from operations in FY20 from Rs 2.96 crore in FY19. 

During the fiscal year ending March 2020, the company’s total expenses stood at Rs 58.75 crore with a negligible loss of Rs 4.3 lakh.