Social commerce startup DealShare shut down B2B biz, fired over 100 employees
As part of its efforts to shift its focus to B2C offerings, social commerce startup DealShare shut down its B2B division and let go of several employees. The change happened a few weeks after the company’s CEO, Vineet Rao, resigned.
“We took some action in this direction by moving our operations to Gurugram and consolidating our business to focus on geographies of Jaipur, Delhi NCR, Lucknow, and Kolkata with clear priorities on creating an online plus offline model,” a DealShare spokesperson told media.
The company has, as the spokesperson further confirmed, shifted its attention to its B2C business for the time being in order to be “relevant to its consumers in the market.” The statement further stated that the change would necessitate realigning the company’s budgets, teams, and locations.
Although the business declined to comment on the number of layoffs, a Moneycontrol report claimed that 130 workers were impacted by the decision.
DealShare is investigating new business models and may make a pivot, according to a March Entrackr report. Rao refuted any such developments at the time, though. Dealshare’s core team and business model have undergone structural change over the last few months.
The company’s board requested that the co-founder and CEO step down from an active position and appointed a new chief executive to run the show.
Media reports claim that Dealshare has been unable to establish a reliable business model. The majority of its gross merchandise value (GMV) reportedly came from the B2B suite, with a negligible contribution from the consumer-facing sector.
According to TheKredible, DealShare, which became a unicorn in January 2022, has raised $393 million to date and was valued at $1.7 billion during the final tranche in February 2022.
DealShare has not yet released its FY23 financial results, but it saw its scale increase by more than 8X to Rs 1,933 crore in FY22. Additionally, in FY22, its losses increased 6.4X to Rs 431crore.
