Exclusive: DealShare in talks to raise a new round at over $1 Bn valuation

Grocery and essentials focused social commerce startup DealShare is in talks with new and existing investors to raise a fresh round at over $1 billion valuation, according to three sources aware of the deal. 

This will be the third round for the Bengaluru-based company in a matter of eight months and the second round in 2021. Only last month, it scooped up a $144 million round led by Tiger Global.

“DealShare is raising a larger round [over $150 Mn] at a valuation of $1 to $1.2 billion," said one of the sources on the condition of anonymity. “The deal may go between $150 to $200 million that will see participation from new and existing investors including Tiger Global and Alpha Wave Incubation,” the person added.

For DealShare, this will be a more than 2.5X jump in the company’s valuation in just a couple of months which was valued at $455 million during its Series D round in July. If the deal goes through, the company will also become the second startup in the social commerce space after Meesho to attain a unicorn status.

“They [Dealshare] have hit the market to raise a new round as there is significant inbound interest in the company at over 2X premium to its last valuation,” said the second source confirming the participation of Tiger and AWI.

Entrackr couldn’t ascertain new investors who are joining the potential round.

DealShare and Tiger decline to comment on the story. Queries sent to AWI did not elicit an immediate response. We’ll update the post in case we hear from them.

DealShare’s biz model and competition

Unlike Meesho and other social commerce platforms, DealShare is an inventory-led platform that manages the supply chain and logistics in bigger cities. Currently, it operates in 40 cities of five states including Delhi-NCR, Karnataka and Maharashtra and has 20 warehouses across the five states. 

Model wise, it’s also different from Meesho, CityMall and others as it emphasises group-buying (inspired by China’s Pinduoduo). For a larger footprint, the company is also building 200 warehouses by the end of this calendar year.

Besides offline traders and merchants, DealShare competes with CityMall and Otipy to some extent. 

Investment and consolidation in social commerce space

The ongoing calendar year has been quite good for startups in the social commerce space. While the segment has mopped up around $540 million in investment this year, it also saw a couple of consolidations in the past two months.

Meesho has led the largest round in this space with a $300 round at a $2.1 billion valuation. Apart from Dealshare’s $144 million Series D round, CityMall had raised $35 million whereas Otipy and OneCode closed $10.2 million and $5 million respectively. 

In terms of consolidation, Vy Capital-backed Shop101 was acquired by InMobi, which is looking to create celebrity-centric stores for its short video entertainment app Roposo. Entrackr had exclusively reported the deal in June. 

The space also saw YouTube’s first acquisition SimSim in India in a deal worth over $60 million. It’s likely to leverage the Delhi (NCR)-based company to provide a commerce layer to small merchants on its platform.

SoftBank-backed Meesho is also in talks to raise its next round at a $4 billion valuation. According to Entrackr’s sources, the Vidit Atrey-led company is gearing up for its consumer play where customers will be able to order products from the platform directly.

The road ahead for social commerce platforms

According to Bain and Company, a global consultancy firm, social commerce in India has the potential to grow to $16 to $20 billion in Gross Merchandise Value or GMV by 2025. The report further added that the market size in the country may touch $60 to $70 billion in GMV by 2030.

Experts tracking the space say that the social commerce startups are expected to raise more funds in the coming months at a 2X to 3X premium in valuation.

Meanwhile, e-commerce major Flipkart also launched its social commerce platform Shopsy in July where users of the platform will be able to share catalogues of products offered by Flipkart sellers. 

Lifestyle video and commerce platform Trell, which recently raised $45 million, is also testing waters in social commerce through its influencer-led commerce platform. Bharat Dukaan. According to sources, the new app would help Trell to build a hyperlocal ecosystem around retailers, influencers and consumers.