Meesho is an Indian E-Commerce Platform. It is an online reselling platform that offers individuals to start online businesses without any investment. It is a private site founded by two IIT Delhi graduate students, Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, in December 2015. The headquarter is in Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
Vidit Aatrey, who is the founder and CEO of Meesho, decided to quit his job in inMobi and start his own company or venture. Then he began Meesho with his partner Sanjeev Barnwal the founder and CTO. They both were batchmates from 2008 to 2012. Their Motto to start this startup is to empower women.
Vidit Aatrey said about Meesho that the Meesho stands for “meri shop” or “Apni Dukaan”. Any individual can register their account with Meesho. Then they will be able to generate links to the product, and then they can share this link on different platforms of social media to resell the products. When any customer buys the product, then Meesho provides an online payment to the reseller.
Meesho allows people to resell products by using their social connections or networks. Company has claimed that more than 13 Million Entrepreneurs connected with them through this platform, and most entrepreneurs are women.
The company has different categories of products to resell, such as saree, homecare products, all types of wear for men and women, sunglasses, bags, shoes, sliders, cosmetic and skincare products, and jewellery, electronics, and house appliances, etc.
Meesho has delivered orders from 100K+ registered suppliers to date to over 26,000 pin codes in more than 4,800 cities. It Generates over rupees ₹500 crores in income for entrepreneurs.
Meesho Investments and Fundings
The Company has made two Investments. Their most recent investment was on March 4, 2021, when Elenas raised $6 M.
- Organization name – Elenas Announced date – March 4, 2021 Money raised – $6 M
- Organization name – Elenas Announced date – Oct 15, 2020 Money raised – $2 M
Total funding amount
Meesho has raised a total of $515.2 M in funding over 9 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Apr 5 2021, from a Series E round by Softbank Vision.
Some of their major fundings were raised from SoftBank of $300 M in April 2021, from Facebook of $25 M in June 2019, from DST Global of $50M in 2018 are among them.
Market Valuation of Meesho
Meesho is to be valued at over $3.5 Billion in this transaction. The Company will be valued anywhere between $3.5 to $4 Billion. Said the second source, who also requested anonymity.
Future Plans of Meesho
It plans to diversify its business model to target 100 million small businesses, competing against major online platforms Amazon and Flipkart in India.
The Company current focus is on women-led resellers dealing in fashion and homecare categories.
Comapny will also foray into online grocery this year through Farmiso to solve for volume and expand its reach into low-income households.
Meesho’s Competitors & Work Culture
- Company will face well-entrenched incumbents like big-basket growers and others, including Reliance’s Jio Mart.
- The Bengaluru-based company last week from Japan’s Softbank vision fund, valuing it at $2.1 Billion.
- This startup has announced a 10-day work break for employees to unplug and rejuvenate.
Conclusion
Meesho is a good and relevant online platform that is very beneficial for Indians, especially Indian women. They can be financially free because of Meesho. It also helps lots of Jobseekers. Company provides good quality based products at an average or low rate.
In the future, Meesho will provide grocery products too, and it could become one of the most successful reseller companies in India.
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