DealShare CEO Vineet Rao steps down, to work with board to find successor

DealShare CEO Vineet Rao has stepped down from his role, the company said in a press release on Monday. He will continue to work with and advise the board, and also help identify a new CEO for the company.

Rao’s resignation is surprising as it comes at a time when the company is shifting focus on sustainable growth from a high-burn model. Sources tell Entrackr that the company’s scale has fallen significantly in the past six-eight months.

“In its continuous quest to drive profitable growth, DealShare aspires to pivot to a hybrid online and offline model to enhance its services, and increase its customer retention & share of wallet…,” the company said in a statement. 

In addition to the expansion of its hybrid model, DealShare has been tweaking its business model for quite some time. Entrackr reported its increased emphasis on opening up small DMart-type stores across tier II and III cities in March.

Of late, Alpha Wave-backed firm has been building a private label portfolio and anticipates up to 25% sales from this vertical by the end of FY24. 

Before Rao’s departure, Dealshare also reshuffled a few positions at the top level. It recently appointed Saurabh Kishore as the new chief technology officer (CTO) to lead the firm's tech initiatives. The company also brought in Venkatesh Tarakkad as the new chief financial officer (CFO) in May last year.

While DealShare did not disclose its FY23 numbers, according to Rao, the company is on track to conclude the last fiscal year with around 20% growth in its topline to Rs 2,300 crore (excluding return and discounts). During FY22, the company recorded over 8X jump in scale to Rs 1,933 crore. As per Fintrackr’s analysis, its losses also rose 6.4X to Rs 431 crore during FY22.