TOKYO — Meesho, an Indian e-commerce startup, on Monday said it raised $300 million from a group of investors led by SoftBank Group’s Vision Fund 2.
The deal valued Meesho at $2.1 billion, according to the company. Existing investors including Prosus Ventures — the venture capital arm of Prosus, formerly known as Naspers — and China’s Shunwei Capital also participated.
Founded in 2015, Meesho operates a marketplace that mainly sells products made by small businesses and entrepreneurs, who are often women. Instead of directly connecting the seller and buyer, resellers using Meesho can recommend products to their friends on social apps such as WhatsApp. The reseller can earn a commission if the friend buys the product.
The business model takes advantage of India’s large number of WhatsApp users to boost its customer base. Meesho said it has “enabled over 13 million individual entrepreneurs to start their own online businesses with zero investment” and that its target is 100 million.
Vision Fund 2, operating with $10 billion in commitments from SoftBank, has been ramping up dealmaking in recent months, but Meesho is its first announced investment in India this year. The first, much larger Vision Fund has invested in some of India’s most well-known tech companies, including Paytm, Ola and Oyo.
