DealShare Hunts For One Last Deal, Will It Find Any Takers?

“DealShare is today an empty vessel with $90 Mn in cash.” That’s how an investor who is aware of the company’s financial status, describes the startup.

Once valued at $1.7 Bn, this is what DealShare has been reduced to, and the company is actively looking for a potential acquirer, with many names reportedly close to acquiring it at a 95%-plus haircut.  

Truemeds is said to be one such suitor but the proposed acquisition is not a done deal yet, according to another investor aware of the development.

Active discussions are ongoing, but Truemeds’ existing investors are not necessarily aligned with the deal. DealShare is also in talks with other potential buyers, the investors added.

Captain Fresh is another name that had surfaced in connection with a possible acquisition but Inc42 has learnt that the company is not pursuing the transaction.

The talks for an acquisition at a distressed valuation come after years of restructuring and attempts to find a viable business model for DealShare, which once enjoyed unicorn status. 

But as the company’s current situation shows, a lot of that was down to the timing of DealShare’s fundraising spree when VCs were investing at valuations that seemed unsustainable.   

Questions sent to DealShare, WestBridge and Truemeds didn’t elicit any response at the time of publishing the story.

For investors, that raises an old question related to distressed investments but with renewed urgency: what should be done with the roughly $90 Mn still sitting on DealShare’s balance sheet?

DealShare 2.0

The first few years of DealShare’s existence were all about proving that its hybrid B2B and B2C model would be able to compete with the startups that were making inroads into B2B supply chain as well as ecommerce marketplaces. 

DealShare was pitched as the ecommerce and supply chain destination for consumers and small retailers or kiranas in Tier II, Tier III and beyond. By January 2022, it already had major investors on board and turned unicorn after raising $165 Mn from AlphaWave, Tiger Global and others. The startup raised its next round in rather quick time and was all set to enter the private label business towards the end of FY23.

However, the business struggled to gain traction or show growth in the next year. Much of the money was spent in acquiring customers on both sides and by August 2023, DealShare exited the B2B vertical to focus only on B2C ecommerce operations. 

The company’s net loss crossed the ₹500 Cr mark in FY23 against a revenue of ₹1,963.5 Cr, despite raising more than $200 Mn in the previous year. 

After two years of struggle, where the company saw the departure of founders Vineet Rao, Sankar Bora and Sourjyendu Medda, DealShare was a shadow of the unicorn it once was. 

Towards the end of 2025, there emerged a new plan and a so-called DealShare 2.0 vision.

Investors brought in Kamaldeep Singh, a former Big Bazaar executive, to run the company and build the next phase of DealShare. 

DealShare’s FY25 numbers also showed the strain. Revenue fell 13.4% YoY to ₹432.4 Cr, while net loss narrowed to ₹87.7 Cr from ₹167.7 Cr a year earlier.

The idea behind this new DealShare was to return to the B2C value commerce, but with a different delivery model.

While DealShare was never a quick commerce platform, with its reinvention it tried to reduce the delivery time to a two hour delivery. DealShare realised in comparison to 10-minute deliveries, standard fulfilment timelines would give the startup more room to curb delivery costs while continuing to serve customers looking for lower priced groceries and everyday products.

As per sources the startup already had 40 dark stores and was doing about 25,000 – 30,000 orders a day. It focused primarily in cities such as Jaipur, Ghaziabad, Lucknow and Kolkata.

The two-hour delivery timeline was a conscious choice. The startup did not want to spend heavily trying to match the delivery times of Blinkit and Zepto. “The 10-minute delivery model was not sustainable,” a  source familiar with the operations at the time said, arguing that the economics of quick commerce made it difficult to generate profits after delivery and fulfilment costs.

While DealShare did touch close to 38,000 orders a day at some point, another source added that gross margins in this business were around 5%-6%, leaving little to no margin for the company after subtracting costs.

A separate industry source said DealShare’s online business faced high customer acquisition and fulfilment costs. “The new leadership had an offline retail background and lacked the technology, product and marketing know how needed to build an online-first business, which is why the company was forced to change tack again,” one of the sources said.

By April 2026, DealShare had started cutting back its online operations, and turned to a physical store network as its next bet. 

The person familiar with the startup said the online business began going through changes from April onwards. At the same time, DealShare was expanding its physical store network, moving from around eight stores to 22.

Sources said around 8-10 stores were profitable and that the offline business began generating revenue soon after opening. DealShare had plans to open more stores, including in markets such as Lucknow and Ajmer.

Another industry source said DealShare had around 15-20 stores in Jaipur and was preparing to open another 15 stores in Lucknow and Kanpur. The stores were doing “decently well”, as per the source who has seen the numbers.

The shift to offline, however, did not settle the question of what DealShare should become.

The company considered several versions of the business, including an offline-only mode, retaining the online operation and an omnichannel setup where stores would fulfil online orders.

“Multiple variations of AOPs (annual operating plan) and things were discussed, and nothing was sort of closed on by the board,” sources said.

One person familiar with the discussions said the board, which was led by WestBridge and Alpha Wave was unable to agree on which business model to pursue.

“The board was not able to decide on which way we should go forward with the organisation,” the person said.

Investors Struggle To Agree On DealShare’s Future

The majority institutional stakeholder in DealShare, WestBridge holds roughly 18.4% of the company, whereas Alpha Wave owns around 16.39% stake in the startup.

For investors, the problem was not simply choosing between online and offline. It was finding a model that could make the remaining capital work.

The startup had already spent years and hundreds of millions of dollars trying to build a growing business. This online vertical was struggling with low gross margins and high customer acquisition and fulfilment costs, while the newer offline business was still being tested.

The indecision became harder to sustain with roughly $90 Mn, or around ₹800 – ₹900 Cr, still sitting on DealShare’s balance sheet, according to another investor familiar with the startup.

One source said investors had been discussing how to salvage the remaining money for the startup.

“The plan is to sell the startup off to someone who can take the money which we have in a bank account to fund their operations,” the person said.

Sources told Inc42 that the talks between Truemeds and DealShare were primarily driven by WestBridge, which is a mutual investor in both the startups.

That is where DealShare’s strategic uncertainty meets its acquisition talks. The strategy changes have also coincided with a steady churn in the organisation.

Having come to steady the ship, new CEO Singh himself is on his way out.

The person familiar with the startup said Singh is serving his notice period. CFO Ashish Shah is also close to the exit door. 

Besides this, several key employees have also left the startup. As per sources, the company has not carried out a blanket layoff, with employees leaving of their own accord. At the same time, DealShare’s online business has come to a complete halt.

The startup began cutting back its online operations around April 2026 and eventually stopped fulfilment from its warehouses. The physical stores continue to operate, but the online business is now “next to zero,” according to the source.

The app remains available and sources said around 30,000 users open the app every month, although many leave without placing an order.

Roughly 22 DealShare stores are currently operational, but plans to add more stores in Lucknow and Kanpur have been put on hold.

The result is a business that looks very different from the one investors were trying to build less than a year ago. The two hour delivery model has effectively been shut down, offline expansion has stopped and the management team brought in for DealShare 2.0 is changing again.

Truemeds Talks Put The Cash In Focus

The acquisition discussions with Truemeds come against this backdrop.

Truemeds has emerged as the frontrunner, but the potential transaction is still subject to investor alignment, according to a person aware of the development. DealShare is also speaking with other potential parties.

The roughly $90 Mn cash balance is likely to be a key part of any transaction, and sets the floor for the deal. 

But another source put it more bluntly. “Why will Truemeds buy a grocery business? It’s just an acquisition of DealShare’s cash reserves,” the source said.

It seems that DealShare’s leftover VC backing will be the only thing worth buying. 

The same source questions whether investors in the potential buyer would be comfortable with such a transaction, particularly if the deal involves issuing shares and diluting their holdings.

That is also why the Truemeds deal cannot yet be treated as a done transaction. There are many moving pieces here that may result in the deal falling through. 

DealShare’s investors appear to be looking for a way out after years of backing a business that has struggled to find a model that can deliver any meaningful growth or returns. 

For a startup that has raised $400 Mn in funding and touched a valuation peak of $1.7 Bn just over four years ago, the turn in fortunes is nothing short of astounding. 

Edited By Nikhil Subramaniam
Designs: Varshita Srivastava

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