INSIDE DEALSHARE'S SEARCH FOR AN IDENTITY

In just one year, the social commerce online grocer has reinvented itself multiple times to survive. What gives?

- Ranjani Raghavan

Back in April 2022 when the funding winter for the startup ecosystem had just about set in, social commerce-focused online e-grocer DealShare started out on a path that would change the face of the startup, eventually triggering a change in its leadership and business model.

The change was coming at an odd time. DealShare had set up shop in eight states, and had announced plans to aggressively expand that footprint. Just two months earlier, the startup had raised $45 million from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, in a round that valued it at $1.7 billion.

At that point, the shareholders struck a bullish note. The company said it was hiring new talent, and co-founder Vineet Rao, then its chief executive, said DealShare would even be exploring an international expansion “in the coming years".

Privately, however, DealShare would soon begin shifting its outlook. By then, the tech markets in the US had collapsed and the writing on the wall was clear for Indian startups.

In the months that followed, the shareholders would be grappling with several questions on growth, service, margins and finally, the pressing need to conserve capital, which was becoming crucial for all startups.

Over six months, starting April 2022, DealShare had “a series of discussions and meetings" to address these concerns, Sourjyendu Medda, co-founder and co-chief executive, told Mint in an interview. These internal meetings led to an overhaul of the business model. The company scaled back on geographies, dropped a business division, laid off staff, while building a new offline strategy. The upshot of it all is that DealShare has transmogrified from a social commerce-driven online grocer to something resembling a hybrid: a retail online supermarket banking on offline stores.