Meesho raises $300 million in fresh funding with participation from Prosus Ventures

Bengaluru, India, 5 April 2021 – Meesho, India’s leading social commerce platform, announced it raised $300 million in a new round of funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2*. The latest investment valued Meesho at USD 2.1 billion and saw participation from existing investors - Prosus Ventures, Facebook, Shunwei Capital, Venture Highway and Knollwood Investment.

India has about 60 million micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) currently. Meesho’s mission is to enable 100 million small businesses (and individual entrepreneurs) to realise their dream of digitising their businesses successfully. These small businesses include individual businesses owned and run by women entrepreneurs and homepreneurs who have become financially independent and successful over the years through Meesho and have carved their own identities.

Aligning with the new vision, Meesho aims to simplify e-commerce for all small businesses in India. It will help the company to build a platform that is pro-small businesses with policies and tools to help even the informal seller to list and do business on Meesho. This will empower these business owners to reach customers through multiple channels - our entrepreneur network, direct Meesho consumers, seller owned storefronts and partnerships.

Vidit Aatrey, founder & CEO of Meesho, said: “We take pride at the rate of speed and scale at which Meesho has grown, impacting many lives and creating exponential learning along the way. With the new round of funding, we are extremely thrilled to have SoftBank onboard. We are focused on expanding our vision from focusing on enabling aspiring women entrepreneurs to create Meesho as a single ecosystem that will enable all small businesses to succeed online. In the last year, we have seen tremendous growth across small businesses and entrepreneurs seeking to move their businesses online and our new vision focuses on enabling 100 million small businesses to succeed, thrive and lead their operations online with ease on our platform.”

The company has grown over the years with a tech-first and asset-light mindset. Meesho’s multifold growth over the last few years has been significant and disruptive in the e-commerce landscape. The employees have played a crucial role in achieving this goal. Meesho will use the new fundraising to strengthen the talent pool across verticals – tech, product, and business.

Over the last five years, Meesho has successfully enabled over 13 million entrepreneurs to start their own online reselling businesses with zero investment, bringing the benefits of e-commerce to more than 32 million customers in the country. Today the platform has over 65,000 suppliers selling over 5 million products, generating over 500 crores in income for entrepreneurs. To date, the company has delivered orders to over 26,000 pin codes in more than 4800 cities, serving customers in more than 4500 Tier 2+ cities - truly bringing e-commerce to Bharat.

Disclaimer:

*As of this press release date, SoftBank Group Corp. has made capital contributions to allow investments by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 ("SVF 2") in certain portfolio companies. The information included herein is made for informational purposes only. It does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy limited partnership interests in any fund, including SVF 2. SVF 2 has yet to have an external close, and any potential third-party investors shall receive additional information related to any SVF 2 investments before closing.