Social Commerce Unicorn DealShare Without A CEO As Vineet Rao Steps Down

Social commerce unicorn DealShare on Monday (July 31) said its cofounder and CEO Vineet Rao has stepped down from his role. 

The development comes at a time when the startup is moving to a hybrid online and offline model. 

In a statement, the startup said that Rao would support the board to help identify the new CEO. However, it didn’t disclose the reason behind his resignation. As such, Rao’s decision to step down abruptly without securing a replacement is bound to raise many questions.

It must be noted that DealShare has been making key appointments over the last few months. In July, it appointed former Tata Cliq CTO Saurabh Kishore as the CTO. Before this, Dealshare didn’t have a CTO and the company’s cofounder Rajat Shikhar used to take care of the job functions of the CTO. 

In December last year, DealShare also appointed former Big Bazaar chief executive Kamaldeep Singh as the president of the retail business. 

The latest development comes almost six months after the startup laid off around 100 employees, or around 6% of its workforce, to reduce burn rate and attain profitability. 

Back then, it was reported that DealShare was reducing its focus on many initiatives and containing its geographical spread to cut costs. Later, the startup paused operations in the bottom 20% of the 150 cities it operated in across the country. 

Founded in September 2018 by Sourjyendu Medda, Vineet Rao, Sankar Bora, and Rajat Shikhar, DealShare is a social ecommerce marketplace which enables first-time internet users to shop online.

The startup entered the coveted unicorn club early last year after it bagged $165 Mn in Series E round from Dragoneer Investment Group and Unilever Ventures, along with its other existing investors. It later raised $45 Mn from ADIA, further catapulting its valuation to over $1.7 Bn. 

DealShare is among a very few ecommerce startups operating on the social commerce business model. Its competitors such as Meesho, Youtube-acquired Simsim, or IndiaBull’s Yaari have either shut operation or pivoted their business model due to mounting losses.

In FY22, DealShare posted a 543% jump in net loss to INR 431.1 Cr from INR 67 Cr in FY21. While operating revenue soared over 8X to INR 1,932.8 Cr from INR 236.7 Cr in FY21, expenses ballooned 679% to INR 2,388 Cr from INR 306.4 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

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