Meesho has become one of the world’s most downloaded shopping apps with 300 million downloads. Interestingly, 70 percent of its app users come from smaller towns
Source: AllianceBernstein Report (June 2022)
Based on a 0% commission model to attract sellers, Meesho is India’s third-largest online marketplace in terms of total value of products sold annually after Flipkart and Amazon
Source: AllianceBernstein Report (June 2022), Tracxn, Company filings
With a total GMV of $5 billion, Meesho received 910 million orders in 2022 with an average order value of Rs 300-400 from 140 million annual transacting users. 68 million products have been listed on Meesho by 825,000 registered sellers
Co-founder and CTO Sanjeev Barnwal said, “Our value proposition is around two things: i) lowest prices; and ii) wide selection. These became so strong that we had a lot of end customers organically coming to Meesho and buying for themselves.”
Source: Tracxn, Company filings
Meesho’s last valuation stood at $4.9 billion. The e-commerce company became a unicorn in April 2021 after its valuation shot to $2.1 billion based on a $300 million funding round led by SoftBank
Meesho is one of India’s most-funded start-ups and has raised over $1 billion. Fidelity Investments, SoftBank, Prosus Ventures and RPS Group are among Meesho’s investors
Between FY21 and FY22, Meesho’s losses have widened 6.5x, and its expenses have also jumped nearly 5x during the same period. At the start of 2022, Meesho’s monthly burn was estimated to be at $30-40 million
Besides Meesho’s Growing losses, high rate of returns, and a funding quiet, it also has to contend with a changing competitive landscape with Flipkart’s Shopsy and Amazon’s social commerce firm GlowRoad, which also introduced a ‘zero-commission’ policy for sellers
Meesho Co-founder and CEO Vidit Aatrey said, “We raised a substantial amount of money in 2021, much more than we needed… and can keep running the business in a very healthy manner for many years.”
“There is a good likelihood that our next round (of financing) would be an IPO. But the plan in 2023 is to get to profitability as quickly as possible,” said Vidit Aatrey