Meesho in talks for pre-IPO placement ahead of listing next month
Mumbai: Social e-commerce platform Meesho is in early talks with domestic and foreign institutional investors for pre-IPO placement as it prepares for an IPO next month, three people familiar with the matter said.
“The company is looking to raise between $50-70 million as part of the pre-IPO placement,” one of these people said, adding that the size of the company’s IPO will change once the pre-IPO placement is completed. “The company is talking to many global companies “This is sovereign wealth funds willing to come in before the IPO,” he added.
“Meesho is in active talks with institutional investors as there is a lot of demand for the asset,” a second person said, adding that talks will progress based on price discovery in the next 7-10 days. Meesho declined to comment.
The company is set to participate in a number of new-age initiatives, including: Groww, Lenskart, Pine Labs and PhysicsWallah went public this quarter, marking one of the busiest periods in the capital markets this year.
The company has approached SBI Funds Management Ltd for a pre-IPO placement, Bloomberg News reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. He stated that he was in talks with and was seeking a valuation of $6 billion.
IPO details
Meesho filed updated IPO draft documents on October 18, following a confidential filing earlier this year. ₹We will sell 4,250 crore new capital and 175.6 million existing shares under offer for sale (OFS). Shareholders who will sell shares include Elevation Capital, Peak XV Partners, Y Combinator, Vidit Aatrey, Sanjeev Kumar, Man Hay Tam and VH Capital. It appointed Kotak Mahindra Capital, Axis Capital, Morgan Stanley India, JPMorgan and Citigroup to assist with the matter.
Meesho, which changed its base from the USA to India in May, was among the companies that received IPO approval from Sebi last month.
The company said it will use the proceeds for cloud infrastructure at its subsidiary Meesho Technologies Pvt. Ltd will pay salaries to existing and new hires and fund acquisitions for machine learning, artificial intelligence and technology teams for branding and marketing.
Founded in 2015 by Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, Meesho’s operating revenue increased by 25% ₹9,390 crore in FY25, while net loss ₹3,941 crore ₹327.6 crore in FY24. Its platform offers small businesses and individual entrepreneurs access to millions of customers, logistics, payment services and customer support capabilities across India.
Focused on online shoppers in tier 2 and tier 3 cities and beyond, Meesho has raised more than $1.3 billion in private funding in total and is backed by leading investors such as Softbank, WestBridge Capital and Fidelity Investments. The company’s value was last around 4 billion dollars in 2023.
