Founded in 2015 by IIT-Delhi batchmates Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, Meesho is a platform that connects manufacturers with re-sellers, who eventually sell these products to users through social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook.
It offers services such as payments and logistics to these re-sellers which enables ease of transactions and sales and has over 45 million customers.
Vidit Aatrey, founder and CEO of Meesho said, “We take pride at the rate of speed and scale at which Meesho has grown, impacting a number of lives, and creating exponential learning along the way. We are focused on expanding our vision from focusing on enabling aspiring women entrepreneurs to creating Meesho as a single ecosystem that will enable all small businesses to succeed online.”
In the last one 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.”
Meesho aims to simplify e-commerce for all small businesses in India. It will help the company to build a platform which 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.
“Globally, SoftBank has always been excited to back founders that provide unique solutions for the local market. By using the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning, Meesho has created a platform for many small business owners to sell to the next cohort of internet users. We look forward to being a part of this journey,” said Munish Varma, Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers.
The company has grown over the years with tech-first and assetlight 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 towards achieving this goal. Meesho will use the new fund-raise to strengthen talent pool across verticals – tech, product, and business, among others.
Sumer Juneja, Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers said, “We have been closely tracking Meesho for the last 18 months and have been impressed by their growth, daily engagement metrics, focus on unit economics and ability to create a strong team. We believe Meesho provides an efficient platform for SME suppliers and social resellers to onboard the e-commerce revolution in India and help them provide personalized experience to consumers.”
