DealShare Co-Founders Vineet Rao and Sankar Bora Exit Amid Restructuring

• ByStartupStory     |    November 24, 2023

DealShare, the Indian ecommerce platform, is witnessing significant leadership changes as two of its co-founders, Vineet Rao and Sankar Bora, have parted ways with the company. This development follows a series of layoffs and business restructuring undertaken by DealShare earlier this year.

In July, Vineet Rao resigned from his role as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and was initially expected to collaborate with the board in the appointment of a new CEO. However, recent reports indicate that Rao has now officially left DealShare, and the company has yet to announce his successor.

Sankar Bora, who served as the Chief Operating Officer (COO), has also departed from the company. Currently, DealShare is in the process of relocating its non-tech functions to Gurugram.

As of March 2022, Vineet Rao held an 11.7% stake in the company, while Sankar Bora held around 3.2%.

Founded in September 2018 by Sourjyendu Medda, Vineet Rao, Sankar Bora, and Rajat Shikhar, DealShare focuses on enabling first-time internet users to shop online. The startup achieved unicorn status early last year after securing $165 million in a Series E funding round from investors like Dragoneer Investment Group and Unilever Ventures.

DealShare later raised an additional $45 million from ADIA, further boosting its valuation to over $1.7 billion. However, the company decided to shut down its business-to-business (B2B) operations earlier this year, resulting in layoffs and a shift in focus to business-to-consumer (B2C) operations in select markets.

A spokesperson from DealShare commented on the recent changes, stating, “We also took a conscious decision to focus on B2C business at this point to stay relevant to our consumers in the market. We have taken decisions of realigning our budgets, reorganising teams and locations, etc.”

Despite its growth in revenue from operations, which expanded more than 8 times to INR 1,932.8 crore in FY22 from INR 236.7 crore in FY21, DealShare reported a widened loss of 543%, reaching INR 431.1 crore in FY22 from INR 67 crore in FY21. The recent leadership changes and restructuring indicate DealShare’s efforts to navigate challenges and reshape its strategy in the competitive Indian ecommerce landscape.

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