SoftBank stays in as Meesho $606M IPO becomes India’s first major e-commerce listing

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

The ten-year-old startup plans to cost its shares at ₹105–111 every, elevating ₹42.50 billion (about $475 million) in recent capital and a small the rest by means of secondary gross sales, giving Meesho a post-issue valuation of roughly ₹501 billion (round $5.60 billion). The startup was last valued at about $5 billion within the personal markets in 2021.

Meesho is about to grow to be the primary main 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, probably for a future itemizing.

A few of Meesho’s early shareholders are promoting within the IPO, with Elevation Capital offloading simply over 4% of its stake, Sequoia Capital spin-off Peak XV Companions promoting round 3%, and Y Combinator trimming about 14%, per the prospectus (PDF). Bigger backers — together with SoftBank, Prosus, and Constancy — aren’t promoting any shares.

Meesho’s offer-for-sale portion has been reduce by about 40% from the draft prospectus filed in October to 105.5 million shares, value ₹11.7 billion (roughly $131 million) on the prime of the worth band. The co-founders, Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Kumar, are, nonetheless, promoting greater than that they had deliberate within the draft prospectus, with their mixed provide rising to 32 million shares from about 23.5 million earlier, serving to make up for lowered participation from different shareholders.

Based in 2015, Meesho started as a social commerce platform that focused first-time internet buyers by means of WhatsApp earlier than evolving into a full-fledged marketplace. It has since carved out a fast-growing area of interest with a low-cost mannequin tailor-made to India’s price-sensitive customers and small retailers — an method that has more and more pressured bigger rivals Amazon and Flipkart. The Bengaluru-based firm makes use of a commission-light mannequin, incomes primarily from logistics charges, promoting, and different companies, whereas charging commissions on merchandise bought by means of its separate Meesho Mall channel.

Meesho reported income from operations of ₹55.78 billion (about $624.0 million) for the six months ended September 30, up from ₹43.11 billion (round $482.0 million) a yr earlier, per its prospectus. Web merchandise worth rose 44% year-over-year to ₹191.94 billion (roughly $2.15 billion). Nevertheless, its losses widened, with Meesho posting a restated loss earlier than tax of ₹4.33 billion (round $48.4 million) for the September 2025 half-year, in contrast with ₹0.24 billion (about $2.7 million) a yr earlier.

Within the final 12 months, Meesho recorded 234.20 million transacting customers — distinctive customers who bought a minimum of one product on the platform. Over the identical interval, the corporate had 706,471 annual transacting sellers, outlined as sellers who acquired a minimum of one order within the yr.

Meesho additionally makes use of a sprawling creator community for product discovery, with greater than 50,000 energetic content material creators producing a minimum of one positioned order by means of their content material over the previous yr.

“Many Indians are solely experiencing e-commerce for the primary time on Meesho, and very similar to the remainder of us, over the subsequent decade, they may purchase increasingly issues and increasingly continuously on this platform,” Mohit Bhatnagar, managing director at Peak XV Companions, informed TechCrunch. “That’s why long-term conviction is the explanation to carry on to as a lot of our stake as we are able to maintain on to.”

Peak XV — which first invested in Meesho in 2018 throughout its Sequoia Capital India period and holds about 13% throughout its two autos — is promoting round 17.38 million shares within the IPO.

Meesho has positioned itself as a value-focused platform — not like Amazon and Flipkart, which it sees as convenience-led gamers. In that respect, the corporate compares itself with different value-driven marketplaces equivalent to Pinduoduo in China, Shopee in Southeast Asia, and Mercado Libre in Latin America.

“Should you have a look at the value-focused bucket, right here, you are attempting to enchantment to mass market customers promoting all types of merchandise and classes in a market enterprise mannequin, which tends to be asset mild,” Aatrey informed reporters throughout Meesho’s press convention on Friday. “And the explanation folks come again is as a result of they need entry to increasingly choice with the affordability worth proposition.”

Meesho additionally sees the IPO enhancing its capability to draw expertise and strengthening confidence throughout its wider ecosystem, CFO Dhiresh Bansal informed TechCrunch. He mentioned a public itemizing boosts the corporate’s model with job candidates — together with these coming from massive tech companies — and has a constructive knock-on impact on customers, sellers and logistics companions by reinforcing Meesho’s governance requirements.

The IPO will open for public subscription on December 3, with the anchor e book scheduled for December 2. About 75% of the provide is reserved for certified institutional patrons, 10% for retail traders and 15% for non-institutional traders.

SoftBank didn’t reply to a request for remark.