rewrite this title SoftBank stays in as Meesho $606M IPO becomes India’s first major e-commerce listing | TechCrunch

Meesho, an Indian e-commerce rival to Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart, is set to launch a roughly $606 million IPO marked by token sell-downs from early backers and no sales from big names such as SoftBank and Prosus, signalling investor conviction in India’s booming online retail market at a time when tech shareholders globally have been cashing out at listings.

The ten-year-old startup plans to price its shares at ₹105–111 each, raising ₹42.50 billion (about $475 million) in fresh capital and a small remainder through secondary sales, giving Meesho a post-issue valuation of roughly ₹501 billion (around $5.60 billion). The startup was last valued at about $5 billion in the private markets in 2021.

Meesho is set to become the first major horizontal e-commerce platform in India to go public, with rival Flipkart expected to pursue an IPO next year and Amazon reportedly exploring a potential spin-off of its India operations, potentially for a future listing.

Some of Meesho’s early shareholders are selling in the IPO, with Elevation Capital offloading just over 4% of its stake, Sequoia Capital spin-off Peak XV Partners selling around 3%, and Y Combinator trimming about 14%, per the prospectus (PDF). Larger backers — including SoftBank, Prosus, and Fidelity — are not selling any shares.

Meesho’s offer-for-sale portion has been cut by about 40% from the draft prospectus filed in October to 105.5 million shares, worth ₹11.7 billion (roughly $131 million) at the top of the price band. The co-founders, Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Kumar, are, however, selling more than they had planned in the draft prospectus, with their combined offer rising to 32 million shares from about 23.5 million earlier, helping make up for reduced participation from other shareholders.

Founded in 2015, Meesho began as a social commerce platform that targeted first-time online shoppers through WhatsApp before evolving into a full-fledged marketplace. It has since carved out a fast-growing niche with a low-cost model tailored to India’s price-sensitive consumers and small merchants — an approach that has increasingly pressured larger rivals Amazon and Flipkart. The Bengaluru-based company uses a commission-light model, earning primarily from logistics fees, advertising, and other services, while charging commissions on products sold through its separate Meesho Mall channel.

Meesho reported revenue from operations of ₹55.78 billion (about $624.0 million) for the six months ended September 30, up from ₹43.11 billion (around $482.0 million) a year earlier, per its prospectus. Net merchandise value rose 44% year-over-year to ₹191.94 billion (roughly $2.15 billion). However, its losses widened, with Meesho posting a restated loss before tax of ₹4.33 billion (around $48.4 million) for the September 2025 half-year, compared with ₹0.24 billion (about $2.7 million) a year earlier.

In the last 12 months, Meesho recorded 234.20 million transacting users — unique consumers who purchased at least one product on the platform. Over the same period, the company had 706,471 annual transacting sellers, defined as sellers who received at least one order in the year.

Meesho also uses a sprawling creator network for product discovery, with more than 50,000 active content creators generating at least one placed order through their content over the past year.

“Many Indians are only experiencing e-commerce for the first time on Meesho, and much like the rest of us, over the next decade, they will buy more and more things and more and more frequently on this platform,” Mohit Bhatnagar, managing director at Peak XV Partners, told TechCrunch. “That’s why long-term conviction is the reason to hold on to as much of our stake as we can hold on to.”

Peak XV — which first invested in Meesho in 2018 during its Sequoia Capital India era and holds about 13% across its two vehicles — is selling around 17.38 million shares in the IPO.

Meesho has positioned itself as a value-focused platform — unlike Amazon and Flipkart, which it sees as convenience-led players. In that respect, the company compares itself with other value-driven marketplaces such as Pinduoduo in China, Shopee in Southeast Asia, and Mercado Libre in Latin America.

“If you look at the value-focused bucket, here, you are trying to appeal to mass market consumers selling all kinds of products and categories in a marketplace business model, which tends to be asset light,” Aatrey told reporters during Meesho’s press conference on Friday. “And the reason people come back is because they want access to more and more selection with the affordability value proposition.”

Meesho also sees the IPO improving its ability to attract talent and strengthening confidence across its wider ecosystem, CFO Dhiresh Bansal told TechCrunch. He said a public listing boosts the company’s brand with job candidates — including those coming from big tech firms — and has a positive knock-on effect on consumers, sellers and logistics partners by reinforcing Meesho’s governance standards.

The IPO will open for public subscription on December 3, with the anchor book scheduled for December 2. About 75% of the offer is reserved for qualified institutional buyers, 10% for retail investors and 15% for non-institutional investors.

SoftBank did not respond to a request for comment.