DealShare.io

Founded in 2018 by Vineet Rao, Sourjyendu Medda, Sankar Bora, and Rajat Shikhar, DealShare pioneered a social commerce model in India. It targeted customers in Tier-II and Tier-III cities, leveraging social media platforms like WhatsApp for group buying to offer lower prices on everyday items. The company grew rapidly, achieving "unicorn" status with over $1 billion valuation after securing significant funding from investors like Tiger Global and Alpha Wave Incubation. However, facing intense competition and challenging market dynamics, DealShare underwent significant restructuring in 2023, shutting down its B2B operations. By early 2024, the company had ceased all its consumer-facing e-commerce operations and laid off the vast majority of its workforce.