India's Meesho sees valuation double in five months
Indian social e-commerce start-up Meesho has raised a $570 million Series F round, doubling its valuation in less than five months to $4.9 billion.
Incoming investors Fidelity and B Capital Group led the round. Footpath Ventures, Trifecta Capital, and Good Capital also came in as new investors. They were joined by existing backers Prosus Ventures, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and Facebook.
It follows a $300 million round in April led by Vision Fund 2 at a valuation of $2.1 billion. In addition to Prosus and Facebook, that round included Shunwei Capital, Venture Highway, and Knollwood Investment.
Total funding since the company’s inception in 2015 now stands at about $1.6 billion, including a $125 million round in 2019 led by Naspers, a significant investor in Prosus. Sequoia Capital India, DST Global, RPS Ventures, SAIF Partners, and Y Combinator are among the company's earlier investors.
Meesho claims to be India’s fastest-growing internet commerce platform, providing small businesses and individual entrepreneurs access to the massive domestic consumer base in more than 700 shopping categories. There is a strong focus on women working from home as resellers and tools for building online audiences through social media.
The company uses a 0% commission model, which it claims is an industry first that has enabled fast scaling and entrepreneur uptake. Additional services span nationwide logistics, payments, and customer support.
It claims to enable 100 million small businesses across India’s lower-tier cities with these services. This compares to 60 million at the time of the April growth round. Order volumes increased 2.5x between these two rounds, according to a statement, while several new product categories were introduced such as sports and fitness, pet supplies, and auto accessories.
The fresh capital will be used to build out technology, grow the team, and increase the product offering in online grocery. The company’s Farmiso – or Meesho Grocery – service is available in more than 200 cities and allows shoppers to place orders with ticket sizes as low as $1.
“By bringing more people from the remotest corners of India’s hinterlands online, we’re becoming the preferred e-commerce destination for the next billion users,” Meesho’s founder and CEO Vidit Aatrey said in a social media post. “Today, 5% of Indian households shop with us every single day, with over 75% of them from tier 2-plus cities.”
India’s unorganized retail sector is estimated to be worth $792 billion. The rise of social e-commerce has provided investors with a new angle for leveraging themes around the rapid digitization of micro-retail players, which have proven resistant to traditional consolidation plays.
There are a number of small VC-backed players in this space, including Shop101, Kiko TV, and GlowRoad. Meesho’s most substantial competitor is arguably DealShare, which raised a $144 million Series D in July at a reported valuation of $455 million. DealShare is also backed by DST.
More on South Asia
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.