Meesho Raises ₹2,439 Cr from 60+ Anchor Investors Ahead of IPO; Price Band ₹105–₹111

• Price Band fixed at ₹105 per equity share of face value ₹1 each to ₹111 per equity share of the face value of ₹1 each (“Equity Shares”) of Meesho Limited (the “Company”)
• Bid /Offer Opening Date – Wednesday, December 3, 2025, and Bid/ Offer Closing Date – Friday, December 5, 2025
• Bids can be made for a minimum of 135 Equity Shares and in multiples of 135 Equity Shares thereafter

Link: https://www.bseindia.com/markets/MarketInfo/DispNewNoticesCirculars.aspx?page=20251202-60

Meesho has allocated ₹2,439 crore to more than 60 anchor investors ahead of its Initial Public Offering. The anchor tranche includes participation from leading global institutional investors GIC, Fidelity and BlackRock, India’s largest domestic mutual funds SBI Mutual Fund, Axis Mutual Fund and Birla Mutual Fund, and globally prominent technology-focused investors such as Dragoneer Investment Group, Morgan Stanley Investment Management (Counterpoint Global), Goldman Sachs Asset Management and WCM Investment Management.

Out of the total allocation of 219,778,524 Equity shares to the Anchor Investors, 45.91% of the total allocation to Anchor Investors were allocated to 14 domestic mutual funds through a total of 52 total schemes.

Meesho Plans Possible IPO Next Year – Report

Bengaluru-based e-commerce startup Meesho is planning a possible IPO next year, as it registered its first-ever profit last month, said a report by multiple media outlets. 

Citing Meesho's Chief Financial Officer Dhiresh Bansal, the report said that Meesho will consider public listing in the next 12 to 18 months provided the market situation remain benign.

Founded in 2015, SoftBank-backed Meesho recorded profits for the first time last month. Its revenue between January-June was more than $400 million, which is 40% more than the corresponding period last year, and Meesho expects it to cross $800 million by the year end.

In the last 12 months, Meesho's revenue has grown by 54%, on the back of a rise in order volume. The horizontal e-commerce platform has also seen an 80% year-on-year reduction in customer acquisition cost and marketing spending along with a 60% reduction in technology costs, signifying operational efficiency.

Valued at nearly $7 billion, Meesho raised about $1 billion from investors including Prosus, B Capital and Fidelity. The startup aims to make e-commerce accessible to all by including online shoppers in small Indian cities where value conscious buyers are often overlooked by e-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart.

To rival Meesho, Flipkart has launched a "zero-commission" platform called Shopsy, whereas Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries is partnering with Chinese fashion brand Shein to launch cheap fashion lines in India. Additionally, Reliance is reportedly planning a zero-commission marketplace for cheap fashion products.

Meanwhile, Meesho has began pursuading big brands, including FMCG giants ITC and Marico as well as personal care company Mamaearth, all of which are charged up to 5% of the order value as commission. However, small merchants continue to sell on Meesho without commissions.

Ministry of Rural Development and Meesho Sign MoU to Onboard Rural Women as Online Sellers

The Ministry of Rural Development and Meesho, India’s only true online marketplace, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today to drive digital inclusion of all women registered under State Rural Livelihood Missions (SRLMs) and enable them to sell online.

Sanjeev Barnwal, Co-founder and CTO, Meesho and the Ministry of Rural Development signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today in Delhi in the presence of Giriraj Singh, the minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj to onboard women registered under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihood Mission and enable them to sell on Meesho.

The partnership will give impetus to Meesho’s ongoing efforts to onboard rural women entrepreneurs in various states and enable them to launch and grow their businesses online. Over the last few months, Meesho has tied up with several government-run self-help groups (SHGs), such as Sanjeevini - Karnataka State Rural Livelihood Mission and UMEED - Jammu and Kashmir Rural Livelihoods Mission.

Meesho will now work with the central government to facilitate this digitisation at scale, organising rural women as community institutions, ensuring their financial inclusion and helping them with market access. The Ministry of Rural Development will support Meesho's engagement with state-owned and SRLM-promoted enterprises to bring local artisans, weavers and craft producers into the e-commerce fold.

Giriraj Singh, the Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj said, “Uplifting rural women across India by unlocking livelihood opportunities for them has been our key objective. Our constant endeavour has been to support the growth and development of rural communities and the collaboration with Meesho will be instrumental in driving financial inclusion for them. Through market insights and training on product cataloging and packaging, women from these self-help groups will be able to leverage the power of technology in making their products visible and accessible to a wider customer base, thereby increasing their earning potential.

With more than 40% of the women population into non-farming, it is our collective responsibility to build capabilities and unlock wider opportunities for them through online selling platforms. We are hopeful to empower 10 crore women financially through this partnership, thereby making them an integral part of India’s vision of becoming a $5 trillion economy.”

Meesho’s continued commitment towards creating a level playing field for the smallest of sellers and its industry-first initiatives like zero commission will encourage women from across the country to embrace internet commerce and allow them to access a wider market. Aligned with Meesho’s vision to enable 100 million small businesses to succeed online, the move will allow them to become self-employed entrepreneurs and fulfill their aspirations of achieving financial independence.

Sanjeev Barnwal, Co-founder and CTO, Meesho, said, “We are honoured to partner with the Ministry of Rural Development on our mission to democratise internet commerce for everyone. Women entrepreneurship is key to India's vision of becoming a $5 trillion economy and, over the years, Meesho has empowered lakhs of them to succeed in the online world and achieve financial independence. This partnership will amplify our efforts in that direction, unlocking the power of internet commerce for their social and economic growth. We will provide them with all the tools and guidance they need to grow their business online with Meesho.”

Meesho will provide end-to-end support to SHGs, training them on the various facets of running an online business. From guidance on identifying the right products and creating a seller account to uploading catalogues and packaging, Meesho will organise a host of in-person training workshops in several regional languages. Further, Meesho will impart education and training on features like product and pricing recommendations, besides facilitating logistics tie-ups in the respective states.

About Meesho:

Meesho is India’s only true e-commerce marketplace. With a vision to enable 100 million small businesses, including individual entrepreneurs, to succeed online, Meesho is democratising Internet commerce and bringing a range of products and new customers online. The Meesho marketplace provides small businesses, which includes SMBs, MSMEs and individual entrepreneurs, access to millions of customers, selection from over 30 categories, pan-India logistics, payment services and customer support capabilities to efficiently run their businesses on the Meesho ecosystem.

For more news and updates on Meesho, follow us on Twitter

About National Rural Livelihood Mission:

The Ministry under Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM) flagship programme has been working to improve the living conditions of rural Indians by enhancing livelihoods through the SHG ecosystem and providing SHG members better income by facilitating better and profitable markets for their produce. As of January 2023, NRLM has its footprints in 7,054 blocks across 737 districts in 34 States/UTs. It has mobilised a total of 8.79 Crore women into 81.61 lakhs SHGs who have been federated into 4.76 lakh Village Organisation and 31,070 Cluster Level Federations.

Besides the Capitalization Support funding of over Rs. 28K crores provided by the programme, Bank loans of Rs. 6.17 lakh crore cumulatively has been also accessed by SHGs. Most of the funds have been used for promoting livelihood activities in the farm and non-farm livelihoods sector. Over 2.30 lakh rural enterprises owned by SHG members have been supported directly under non-farm livelihood activities of DAY-NRLM.

Meesho Joins ONDC on Mission to Democratize Internet Commerce

Vidit Aatrey, Founder & CEO - Meesho

Meesho, India’s fastest-growing internet commerce company, today announced its integration with the government’s Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) to help connect buyers with hyperlocal sellers and support India’s vision of creating an inclusive e-commerce ecosystem.

In line with Meesho’s mission to democratize internet commerce for everyone, the integration will fuel discoverability of products for consumers while creating a wider market for hyperlocal suppliers. The pilot will first be launched in Bangalore and gradually rolled out in other locations over the coming months.

With 80% of Meesho’s 14 crore annual transacting customers coming from Tier 2+ cities, the company has been instrumental in boosting access for underserved users across the country. More than 8 lakh sellers are currently registered on the platform, of which ~40% are from Tier 2 cities and beyond. Meesho has always focused on making e-commerce more inclusive and the integration with ONDC will amplify the company’s efforts in that direction. 

Vidit Aatrey, Founder and CEO, Meesho, said, “With a shared goal to empower small sellers and give a fillip to hyperlocal businesses, the integration will boost our efforts to democratize internet commerce for everyone. ONDC will also play an important role in expanding India’s e-commerce sector by bringing more consumers online. We have been working closely with ONDC to ensure that the integration is smooth and the user experience remains seamless.”

T Koshy, Chief Executive Officer at Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) commented, “At ONDC, our aim is to create an open e-commerce ecosystem that caters to one and all. We are pleased to onboard Meesho as its deep capabilities in small towns will set the network flywheel in motion and take ONDC closer to our goals. E-commerce is still small in India and new-age platforms like Meesho will be strong network participants for ONDC in this journey.”

About Meesho:

 Meesho is India’s fastest growing internet commerce platform. With a vision to enable 100 million small businesses, including individual entrepreneurs, to succeed online, Meesho is democratizing internet commerce and bringing a range of products and new customers online. The Meesho marketplace provides small businesses, which includes SMBs, MSMEs and individual entrepreneurs, access to millions of customers, selection from over 700+ categories, pan-India logistics, payment services and customer support capabilities to efficiently run their businesses on the Meesho ecosystem.

Meesho Partners With Cashfree Payments to Provide Instant Refunds to Customers

Meesho, India’s fastest growing internet commerce company, today announced its partnership with Cashfree Payments, India’s leading payments and API banking solutions company, to enable instant refunds for all Cash on Delivery (COD) orders placed via Meesho’s platform. This integration of Cashfree Payments is set to enhance the shopping experience of all Meesho users while also minimizing the need for manual intervention in certain orders.

Traditionally, in India, COD has been the preferred mode of payment especially for users from tier-II+ markets. Reducing the overall turnaround time taken to process refund payouts will enhance customer experience and also increase their trust towards online transactions. Through this partnership, Meesho aims to successfully process each refund payout in under 2 hours and eliminate drops in the payout funnel caused by technical failures or bank downtime. This entire refund process is automated by Cashfree Payments’ bulk disbursal offering ‘Payouts’. Further, the integration with Cashfree Payments will automate supplier payouts and also enable payout via UPI.

Commenting on the partnership, Kirti Varun Avasarala, Chief Product Officer, Meesho said, “In India, Cash on Delivery (COD) continues to be a preferred payment mode. We’ve noticed that any unexpected delay or hassle caused in processing refunds can cause inconvenience and lead to trust deficit. Meesho’s aims to become the preferred shopping destination for the next billion Indian consumers and our partnership with Cashfree Payments will address a very important aspect in the users’ journey and help us move closer to this goal."

Reeju Datta, Co-Founder, Cashfree Payments said, "We are glad to collaborate with Meesho in solving the problem of slow refunds, especially in case of COD orders. Our bulk disbursal product, ‘
Payouts’ will help Meesho delight its customers with faster refunds by crediting the refund amount to the customer's bank account in under 2 hours by automating the process. Queries around delayed refunds are a major source of customer tickets for e-commerce businesses, and we look forward to help Meesho reduce such queries to nil."

According to a recent report by data.ai (formerly App Annie), Meesho was the most downloaded e-commerce app in the world last year. Over the course of 2022, the company will continue to fuel the discoverability of hyperlocal businesses and products, make e-commerce accessible to value conscious customers and innovate to become the preferred e-commerce destination for the next billion users in the country. Meesho also aims to reach 100 million monthly transacting users by December 2022 and increase its roster to over 50 million products.

About Meesho

Meesho is India’s fastest growing internet commerce platform. With a vision to enable 100 million small businesses, including individual entrepreneurs, to succeed online, Meesho is democratizing internet commerce and bringing a range of products and new customers online. The Meesho marketplace provides small businesses, which includes SMBs, MSMEs and individual entrepreneurs, access to millions of customers, selection from over 700+ categories, pan-India logistics, payment services and customer support capabilities to efficiently run their businesses on the Meesho ecosystem.

About Cashfree Payments

Cashfree Payments is a leading payment and API banking solutions company. It provides full-stack payments solutions enabling businesses in India to collect payments and make payouts via all available methods with simple integration. Cashfree Payments’ offerings include an advanced and easy way to integrate payment gateways, a split payment solution for marketplaces, bank account verification API and Auto Collect -- a virtual account solution to match inbound payments to customers.

Founded by IIIT Hyderabad alumnus Akash Sinha and IIT Kharagpur graduate Reeju Datta, www.cashfree.com is among the leading payment service providers in India processing transactions worth USD 20 Billion annually. It has leveraged technology to lead payment disbursals in India with more than 50% market share among payment processors. Cashfree Payments enables more than 1,00,000 businesses with payment collections, vendor payouts, wage payouts, bulk refunds, expense reimbursements, loyalty and rewards. Apart from India, Cashfree Payments products are used in eight other countries including the USA, Canada and UAE. Cashfree Payments is backed by Silicon Valley investor Y Combinator, Apis Partners, State Bank of India (SBI) and was incubated by PayPal.

Meesho and Klub team up to Boost Local Manufacturing through Financing Partnership

Fintech startup, Klub has partnered with India’s social e-commerce giant, Meesho to support the local economy. This partnership aims to provide financing options for MSMEs on Meesho’s platform to enable domestic sourcing and manufacturing in the current COVID-19 economy.

Emphasizing on the honourable Prime Minister's call for self-reliance and lending support to Indian industries, the financing partnership of Klub and Meesho will provide end-to-end solutions to suppliers on the Meesho platform to raise capital for the growth of their businesses. Additionally, thisVocal for Localcollaboration will ensure flexible financing for select Meesho suppliers to source input material through domestic manufacturing units, and in turn, expand their business.

Commenting on the financing partnership, Anurakt Jain, Co-founder and CEO , Klub, said, “ As an embedded financing partner for Meesho, we look forward to combining our expertise and unique financial solutions with Meesho’s reach to provide some relief to small businesses. Klub’s goal is to enable local brands to reach their growth potential by offering flexible financing solutions." Founded by Anurakt Jain and Ishita Verma, and backed by Surge, Sequoia Capital India’s rapid scale-up program, Klub is actively building a platform to offer much-needed capital to local entrepreneurs in the Indian market.

Founded by Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, Meesho currently has close to 4 million women entrepreneurs and 50,000 suppliers on its platform, who have in turn created more than 100,000 jobs in Tier 2 and 3 cities. "We are very excited to come together with Klub with a shared vision of converting business dreams to reality despite the challenges of the current economic situation," highlighted Vidit Aatrey, CEO, Meesho. The brand aims to encourage more local entrepreneurs to start up their businesses and eventually bolster the Indian economy by providing capital assurance through this partnership.

At a time when Indian MSMEs are reeling from the COVID-19 credit impact and are seeking alternative options for financing and growth, this partnership between the two home-grown startups further enables local manufacturing in the country.

About Klub

Klub is a fintech platform that provides skin-in-the-game growth capital to loved consumer brands through Revenue Based Financing (RBF). Klub is backed by marquee investors including Surge, Sequoia Capital India’s rapid scale-up program, EMVC Fintech Fund, and many prominent angels.

About Meesho

Meesho, founded by IIT-Delhi graduates Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal in 2015, is India’s largest social commerce platform that enables anyone to start an online business without investment.  It facilitates an innovative three-way marketplace enabling resellers, small and medium businesses (SMBs), and micro-entrepreneurs across India to connect with potential buyers using social media.

Meesho's Paresh Goel joins DB Digital as Chief Technology Officer

DB Digital, the Digital Products business of the Dainik Bhaskar Group (DBCL), India’s largest print media company and home to flagship newspapers like Dainik Bhaskar, Divya Bhaskar and Divya Marathi, announced the appointment of Mr. Paresh Goel as the Chief Technology Officer. 

Paresh has a dynamic experience of close to two decades in building and operating technology systems at scale while working with some of the leading digital consumer companies including Adobe. He will be responsible for the Technology Function at DB Digital.

Prior to joining DB Digital, Paresh was VP, Engineering at Meesho, one of the fastest-growing startups in India, and had also started his own company in the Ed Tech space before selling it to Adda247. Prior to that, he was in a technology leadership role at Hike Messenger and Adobe Systems. He is an expert in scaling technology systems across social, content, & commerce and has a proven track record of building products that are used by millions of users now.

Commenting on the appointment, Mr. Pathik Shah, CEO, DB Digital said, 

“I’m extremely excited to welcome Paresh on board. We have worked together in the past on growing consumer products to tens of millions of users and built a lot of innovative features together. We’re looking forward to forming a stellar Product and Technology team for building an extremely high quality, engaging and personalized News product which can serve and delight the entire vernacular news market, the likes of which India, unfortunately, lacks right now. We are at a very interesting stage of growth at present, and we’re looking forward to taking DB Digital to the next level”.

Mr. Paresh Goel, Chief Technology Officer, DB Digital said, 

I am delighted to be leading Technology at DB Digital. We have a unique opportunity to create a meaningful impact on users’ lives via a personalised digital news platform. As the internet penetration continues to rise in India, people are looking at us as their trusted brand to deliver them the news most relevant to them on mobile.

We will be building the most engaging content experience which is miles ahead of anything else in the market right now. We will further couple this with Machine Learning to surface highly personalized news for our users. People in India deserve high quality, insightful and engaging news - and this is precisely what our mission is. I am ready for and very excited about the challenge.

DB Digital is a Digital Products startup, focused exclusively on building the best news content products for India. More than 500 million Indians will be online on their mobile devices by 2020, hungry for more - more news, more information, more knowledge, and we want to be their trusted, go-to source for high quality content delivered to them daily in the easiest to consume way, personalized for their specific needs. 

We’re backed by India’s biggest newspaper group (The Dainik Bhaskar Group) which reaches tens of millions of consumers across India on a daily basis, in multiple languages including Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi.

About Dainik Bhaskar Group

DB Corp Ltd. is India’s largest print media company that publishes 5 newspapers with Dainik Bhaskar 46 editions, Divya Bhaskar 9 editions & Divya Marathi 6 editions with 211 sub-editions in multiple languages (Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi) across 12 states in India. Its flagship newspapers Dainik Bhaskar (in Hindi) established in 1958, Divya Bhaskar and Saurashtra Samachar (in Gujarati) and Divya Marathi (in Marathi) have a total readership of 6.6 crores, making us the most widely read newspaper group in India with presence in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bihar and Jharkhand. Our other noteworthy newspaper brands are Saurashtra Samachar and DB Star.

DBCL is the only media conglomerate that enjoys a leadership position in multiple states, in multiple languages and is a dominant player in its all major markets.

Social Commerce Platform Meesho Raises Fresh $50 Mn from Shunwei Capital, Others

Bangalore-based social commerce platform Meesho has raised $50 million in a Series C funding round from investors including Shunwei Capital, DST Partners and RPS Ventures. Meesho's existing investors Sequoia India, SAIF Partners, Venture Highway and Y Combinator also participated in this round.

The startup will utilize the latest funds for expanding into more categories and scaling domestic & international supply base. Prior to this round, Meesho had raised $11.5 million in a funding led by Sequoia India, in June this year.

So far, the startup has raised a total of about $65.5 million over six funding rounds and out of this $61.5 million have been raised in this year alone.

Founded in 2015 by IIT-Delhi graduates Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, Meesho is creating the next big e-commerce distribution channel via homepreneurs selling on WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. It has network of 20,000+ homepreneurs strong across 150+ cities in India.

Speaking of the investment, Kabir Misra, founder & managing partner, RPS Ventures, said, " The company has great investors and a young entrepreneur at the helm. We are hoping to assist them with our accumulated experience in the sector to further grow their business in India and beyond."

The company claims to have more than 1 million re-sellers on its platform. For every transaction, a re-seller makes a 10-20% commission.

“We’ve witnessed 10x growth over the last six months. “With this new round of funding and the strong team we’ve built at Meesho, we will reach end consumers not served well by traditional e-commerce models," said Vidit Aatrey, co-founder, Meesho.

WhatsApp, which is estimated to have over 100+ million users in India, is recognized by Meesho as unparalleled as a distribution channel for selling online or retaining customers.

More than 30% of Meesho’s user-base is non-English and it plans to launch in new vernacular languages over time to go deeper into smaller towns and cities. Currently, it has over 1 million resellers on its platform. For every transaction, a reseller makes a 10-20% commission.

Meesho competes with other social commerce startups namely Shop101 and Glowroad, they however have not raised capital as much as Meesho had.

For China's Shunwei Capital, this is yet another India investment this year. Prior to this, Shunwei had invested in Vokal, a vernacular P2P knowledge-sharing platform founded by TaxiforSure co-founder Aprameya Radhakrishna. This was followed by investment in Upwards Fintech Pvt. Ltd, a Mumbai-based micro-lending platform, in September this year.

Shunwei also led a $6.25 million (Rs 43 crore) funding round for Pune-based online lending startup LoanTap, and participated in a $30 million Series B round raised by Cheche365.com, an auto insurance search engine, in November last year. A month before that, Shunwei along with Xiaomi Technologies led an $8 million Series A round for Bangalore-based microlending platform KrazyBee.

Social Commerce Platform Meesho Raises $11.5 Mn in Series B Funding Led by Sequoia India

Bangalore-based Meesho, a social commerce platform that helps both resellers and emerging brands build businesses using social media, has raised an $11.5 million Series B funding round led by Sequoia India.

Existing investors SAIF Partners, Y Combinator and Venture Highway also participated in the round.

Earlier in October 2017, Meesho had raised $3.1 million from investors led by SAIF Partners. Prior to that, the startup had raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding from investor Rajul Garg, besides other investors. Meeso has raised $15M in total so far.

Founded by IIT Delhi alumni Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal in 2015, Meesho provides an online platform, as well as sourcing, logistics and payments tools, to help “social sellers” launch, build and promote online businesses using WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media channels. The company was founded in Bangalore in 2015 by IIT-Delhi graduates Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal.

A typical Meesho social seller, which includes small retailers, housewives, students and even retirees, earns between INR 20,000-25,000 per month by selling products across fashion, lifestyle and many other categories.

To date, Meesho has enabled over 800,000 social sellers in over 500 towns across India to start and grow their businesses with zero capital cost. Together, the small businesses on Meesho’s platform currently reach over four million consumers.

Meesho will utilize this fresh raise to accelerate hiring and product development, while expanding the categories on the platform.

“Lakhs of aspiring Indians are finally realising their dreams of starting their own business online with Meesho,” said Aatrey. “We have grown 20X since our Series A last year, and we continue to be the biggest cheerleader for the social reselling model that we have built from scratch over the last two years. With the new investment, we plan to double down on our mission to create 20M entrepreneurs over the next two years by expanding our suite of tools.”

“Social commerce is the future of e-commerce in India. People buy from people they trust, and that’s what Meesho enables. Entrepreneurs, many of them women, use the Meesho platform to recommend, customize and sell to their family and friends,” said Mohit Bhatnagar, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India Advisors. “Social selling is a huge trend and Sequoia India is excited to partner with Meesho, which is the early leader in this space.”

For Sequoia, Meesho is second investment within a week as earlier FreeCharge co-founder Kunal Shah, for his upcoming venture, had reportedly raised $30 million in a funding round led by Sequoia .

“Vidit and team have executed amazingly well since Series A, and have demonstrated that Meesho can become a massive alternate distribution channel.” said Mukul Arora, Managing Director, SAIF Partners. “We are really excited to continue backing them, and welcome Sequoia India to this partnership.”

Social E-Commerce Startup Meesho Raises $3.1 Mn From Investors Led By SAIF Partners

Bengaluru-based social e-commerce startup Meesho has raised $3.1 million from investors led by SAIF Partners in a fresh round of funding. Existing investors Y Combinator and Venture Highway also participated in the round.

The startup will use the freshly raised funds to hire for its tech and business operation teams, CEO Vidit Aatrey said. The company is also looking to scale up its platform by bringing in more resellers though community engagement and referrals.

This funding has made startup's total funding to $3.7 million. In May 2016 Meesho had raised $350,000 from angel investors including in convertible debt.

Founded in 2015 by IIT-Delhi alumni Sanjeev Barnwal and Vidit Aatrey, Meesho is a mobile-first e-commerce platform for the specific needs of small businesses in India. Businesses can create an online shop within seconds, share on WhatsApp and Facebook, keep customers updated with new products, get new customers leads in real-time and collect payments over chat easily.

Meesho connects suppliers to a network of resellers largely comprising housewives, who then use channels such as WhatsApp and social media platforms Facebook and Instagram to promote these products within their social circles. It has about 20,000 resellers and more than 1,000 suppliers on its marketplace, mainly in the categories of fashion, lifestyle and home, and kitchen.

A reseller earns 10-20% commission on each transaction. Mukul Arora, managing director at SAIF Partners said to Times of India, "This is a very India specific opportunity with strong tailwinds, and has potential to change how long tail products are sold in India."

Meesho has partnered with third party logistics players to enable deliveries. About half of its orders are fulfilled through cash on delivery, 25% through payment gateways, for which it has tied up with Razorpay, while the rest are done through mobile wallets.

WhatsApp is estimated to have over 100 million users. As the country’s most popular app, WhatsApp is unparalleled as a distribution channel for selling online or retaining customers, despite being largely ill-suited to the role. That’s where Meesho, a startup in Y Combinator’s latest batch, is hoping to change things and empower WhatsApp sellers.

The number of Internet users in India is expected to reach 450-465 million by June, up 4-8% from 432 million in December 2016. The report also points out that 77% of urban users and 92% of rural users consider mobile as the primary device for accessing the Internet, largely driven by availability and affordability of smartphones.

Moreover, in India not everyone has desktop or laptop but smartphone with WhatsApp as the most popular app which is estimated to have over 100 million users. As the country’s most popular app, WhatsApp is unparalleled as a distribution channel for selling online or retaining customers, despite being largely ill-suited to the role. That’s where Meesho is hoping to change things and empower WhatsApp sellers.

Social Commerce Platform Meesho Raises Angel Funding from Investor Rajul Garg, Others

Social commerce platform Meesho, previously called Fashnear, has raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding from investor Rajul Garg, besides other investors. The Bangalore-based startup which was founded by IIT Delhi alumni Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal in 2015, allows sellers to set up an online shop through its platform and also facilitates sharing on other social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Pinterest, amongst others.

A business-to-business (B2B) platform, Meesho has also launched its app for Android users and planning to launch for iOS users very soon.

Rajul Garg has previously invested in many firms like Innotarget Fashalot Retails Pvt Ltd (which runs location-based fashion and store discovery mobile platform Fashalot), Corner Store Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (a full-service pharmacy targeting patients with chronic illnesses that operates under the brand LifCare) and AddoDoc Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (which runs the Babygogo mobile app that connects parents with child healthcare experts).

Last year, Hyderabad-based Thinkbits Internet Technologies Pvt Ltd which owns and operates social commerce startup VioletStreet.com, has also raised $315,000 in angel funding from former Bank of America senior vice president Venkat Vallabhaneni and angel investor Srinivasa Rao Paturi.