Social e-commerce start-up DealShare announced it has raised $165 million in the first close of its Series E fund raise. New investors included Dragoneer Investments Group, Kora Capital and Unilever Ventures, along with continued commitments from existing investors Tiger Global and Alpha Wave Global (Falcon Edge).
"Unicorn" is a term used to describe a privately held startup company with a value of over $1 billion.
The company has been growing its consumer and revenue base strongly and expects to hit $1bn revenues in the near-term ,it said in a press statement.
The funds raised in this round will be utilized to invest in technology and data science, as well as a ten-fold expansion in its logistics infrastructure and to increase geographic reach. In addition, it will establish a sizable offline store franchise network.
Vineet Rao, Founder & CEO of DealShare, said: "Our company has created job opportunities for over 5,000 persons across the country. We will be utilizing the proceeds from the round to invest heavily into technology, improving the supply chain and expanding our footprint throughout the country. We will also invest in acquiring best-in-class technologies and marquee brands that are focused on the mass market”, Rao added.
Sourjyendu Medda, Founder, Chief Business Officer, DealShare, said, "We are witnessing very high growth in our business. This year, we will be expanding our presence to well over 200 cities across 20 states and are setting an audacious goal to increase our annual revenue run rate to $3 billion while becoming operationally profitable. We also aim to add close to 50 million new consumers in the next 12 months.”
DealShare operates over 100 warehouses in the 10 states it operates in, and plans to expand its warehousing from 2 million square feet today to 20 million square feet over the next 12 months.
Avendus was the exclusive financial advisor to the transaction.
