DealShare CEO Vineet Rao steps down; company moves base to Delhi

DealShare's CEO Vineet Rao

E-commerce platform DealShare's CEO Vineet Rao will be stepping down from his role effective immediately, the company said in a statement on July 31. Rao, who is also the co-founder of the company, has made this decision to pave the way for a professional CEO to run the business going forward.

His decision to move away from operations also comes at a time when DealShare is moving its base to Delhi from Bengaluru and also ramping up its offline presence as it looks to increase its revenue streams, two people aware of the developments told Moneycontrol.

“...DealShare aspires to pivot to a hybrid online and offline model to enhance its services, and increase its customer retention and share of wallet. As the company embarks on this next phase of growth, Vineet Rao, the current CEO has decided to step down from his role. Vineet (Rao) will work with the board to help identify the right CEO to lead this mission. He will also continue to work with and advise the board in respect to the new leadership,” a company spokesperson told Moneycontrol.

The Bengaluru office was the largest for DealShare in terms of employee strength. Company insiders estimated that there were around 350 to 450 DealShare employees in Bengaluru, representing over a third of the company's current headcount of more than 1,100.

All staffers from non-tech divisions are being asked to relocate to Delhi within three months because the region is becoming more important for DealShare. But at the same time, the decision could result in multiple employees quitting the company and looking for similar jobs in Bengaluru, industry experts said.

“If an employee cannot move to Delhi for whatever reason, the company will ask them to leave. Employees will be given an option to move departments if they wish to stay put in Bengaluru and not move to the Delhi-NCR belt but very few of them will make the cut,” a person in the know told Moneycontrol.

The benefits and assistance that these employees will get from DealShare was not known. The company spokesperson did not immediately comment on questions around the shift in base.

Sourjyendu Medda, founder and co-CEO had told Moneycontrol that the company will be investing Rs 1,000 crore over the next five years to grow its private labels business because of healthier margins.

“When we sell products from Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), Procter and Gamble (P&G) and other large companies, we are left with a margin of just around 10 percent. But the same products, if sold under our own brands, will give us a margin of 20 percent – at least double of what the bigger companies can give,” Medda had said then as he explained the importance of private labels.

Medda co-founded DealShare with Rajat Shikhar, Rao and Sankar Bora in 2018. The company was last valued at $1.7 billion after having raised over $390 million from ADIA, WestBridge Capital, Tiger Global and others.