DealShare’s FY22 Loss Balloons 543% YoY To INR 431 Cr, Operating Revenue Up 8X

Ecommerce unicorn DealShare’s loss widened 543% to INR 431.1 Cr in the financial year 2021-22 (FY22) from INR 67 Cr in FY21 due to its growing business and the associated cash burn. 

On the other hand, revenue from operations grew more than 8X to INR 1,932.8 Cr in FY22 from INR 236.7 Cr in FY21. Total revenue stood at INR 1,956.9 Cr in FY22 as against INR 239.3 Cr in FY21.

The startup primarily earns revenue from delivery of goods to customers and marketing income from vendors.

Meanwhile, the startup’s expenses continued to mount. The hyperlocal startup saw its total expenditure balloon 679% to INR 2,388 Cr from INR 306.4 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Costs related to procurement of goods accounted for the biggest chunk of expenses, rising 766% to INR 2,099.2 Cr from 242.1 Cr in FY21. While other expenses stood at INR 284.4 Cr during the year under review, employee benefit expenses accounted for INR 118.3 Cr. 

Cash outflows from operating activities surged 572% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 523.1 Cr owing to high cash burn on the cost of goods sold. 

It is this high cash burn that has hurt the startup. Earlier this week, the unicorn sacked 100 employees, or around 6% of its workforce, in a bid to streamline its operations and cut costs.

Founded in September 2018 by Sourjyendu Medda, Vineet Rao, Sankar Bora, and Rajat Shikhar, DealShare is a social ecommerce marketplace that deploys social media platforms to directly sell household essentials to users by sourcing items directly from lesser-known brands and through community sales.

The startup began operations as a WhatsApp group operating out of Jaipur that allowed users to buy items. Later, the group morphed into an app that allowed users to buy items directly. Eventually, the startup pivoted to a more hyperlocal model and onboarded local suppliers and brands on the platform to sell their products and target the mass Indian market.

The startup raised $165 Mn in its Series E funding round in January last year from marquee investors such as Tiger Global, Alpha Wave Incubation, and Kora Investment. 

DealShare competes with the likes of social commerce unicorn Meesho, Amazon’s GlowRoad, and Flipkart-backed Shopsy.