Tiger Global and Falcon Edge Capital are looking to double down on their bets on DealShare, becoming the latest high-profile investors to go all-in on India’s nascent but growing social commerce trend.
The two firms, both of which are already an investor in Jaipur-headquartered startup (AWI, which is managed by Falcon, is an early investor in DealShare), are in advanced stages of talks to co-lead a financing round of over $225 million in DealShare, three sources familiar with the matter told me.
The talks propose giving DealShare a valuation of over $1.7 billion, the sources said, requesting anonymity as the talks are private. The round will likely see some early investors and founders selling as much as $60 million worth of shares, the people said. DealShare, which has raised $183 million in its previous financing rounds, was valued at $455 million (post-money) in its Series D round three months ago.
DealShare and one of its co-founders didn’t respond to a request for comment. Tiger Global declined to comment.
The startup had preliminary talks with a number of other investors including Coatue Management, according to a source familiar with the matter. Coatue Management declined to comment.
The investment talks come at a time when the trend of social commerce has taken off in the world’s second largest internet market. Indian social commerce startup Meesho recently secured $570 million in a round. (Meesho, which counts SoftBank, B Capital, and Prosus Ventures among its investors, is in talks to raise over $50 million from Google, TechCrunch reported last week.) Flipkart, India’s largest e-commerce firm, recently forayed into the social commerce category and said it is aiming to tap over 25 million merchants on its platform by next year.
Even as Amazon and Flipkart have been able to create a sizable market in the urban Indian cities, much of the nation remains still underserved. DealShare, which began as an e-commerce platform on WhatsApp, where it offered hundreds of products to consumers, is attempting to reach consumers in smaller Indian cities and towns. The startup says customers on its platform buy curated items in groups, which makes purchases “highly competitive” in affordability. The average cart size on DealShare is between $16 to $19, the startup said.
The startup offers “high-quality, low-priced essentials coupled with a gamified, fun and virality-driven vernacular shopping experience that makes it easy for first-time internet users to experience online shopping,” its executives have said in past interviews. The community purchasing, they said, enables “ultra-low-cost delivery mechanism” and ensures “best-in-class unit economics.”
DealShare has recently aggressively expanded its private label brands, through which it sells a range of items including rice and pulse, according to a source familiar with the matter.