DealShare Hunts For One Last Deal; Will It Find Any Takers?

by · Inc42

SUMMARY

  • DealShare 2.0 revival has stalled, with its online business largely shut and offline expansion put on hold
  • Investors remain divided over DealShare’s future as the startup struggles to find a sustainable business model
  • The two hour delivery model has been scaled back, while management churn and halted store expansion add to the uncertainty around the business
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“DealShare is today an empty vessel with $90 Mn in cash.” That’s how an investor who is aware of the company’s financial status, describes the startup.

Once valued at $1.7 Bn, this is what DealShare has been reduced to, and the company is actively looking for a potential acquirer, with many names reportedly close to acquiring it at a 95%-plus haircut.  

Truemeds is said to be one such suitor but the proposed acquisition is not a done deal yet, according to another investor aware of the development.

Active discussions are ongoing, but Truemeds’ existing investors are not necessarily aligned with the deal. DealShare is also in talks with other potential buyers, the investors added.

Captain Fresh is another name that had surfaced in connection with a possible acquisition but Inc42 has learnt that the company is not pursuing the transaction.

The talks for an acquisition at a distressed valuation come after years of restructuring and attempts to find a viable business model for DealShare, which once enjoyed unicorn status. 

But as the company’s current situation shows, a lot of that was down to the timing of DealShare’s fundraising spree when VCs were investing at valuations that seemed unsustainable.   

Questions sent to DealShare, WestBridge and Truemeds didn’t elicit any response at the time of publishing the story.

For investors, that raises an old question related to distressed investments but with renewed urgency: what should be done with the roughly $90 Mn still sitting on DealShare’s balance sheet?

The DealShare 2.0 Plan Tanks

The first few years of DealShare’s existence were all about proving that its hybrid B2B and B2C model would be able to compete with the startups that were making inroads into B2B supply chain as well as ecommerce marketplaces. 

DealShare was pitched as the ecommerce and supply chain destination for consumers and small retailers or kiranas in Tier II, Tier III and beyond. By January 2022, it already had major investors on board and turned unicorn after raising $165 Mn from AlphaWave, Tiger Global and others. The startup raised its next round in rather quick time and was all set to enter the private label business towards the end of FY23.

However, the business struggled to gain traction or show growth in the next year. Much of the money was spent in acquiring customers on both sides and by August 2023, DealShare exited the B2B vertical to focus only on B2C ecommerce operations. 

The company’s net loss crossed the ₹500 Cr mark in FY23 against a revenue of ₹1,963.5 Cr, despite raising more than $200 Mn in the previous year. 

After two years of struggle, where the company saw the departure of founders Vineet Rao, Sankar Bora and Sourjyendu Medda, DealShare was a shadow of the unicorn it once was. 

Towards the end of 2025, there emerged a new plan and a so-called DealShare 2.0 vision.

Investors brought in Kamaldeep Singh, a former Big Bazaar executive, to run the company and build the next phase of DealShare. 

DealShare’s FY25 numbers also showed the strain. Revenue fell 13.4% YoY to ₹432.4 Cr, while net loss narrowed to ₹87.7 Cr from ₹167.7 Cr a year earlier.

The idea behind this new DealShare was to return to the B2C value commerce, but with a different delivery model.