Meesho Raises USD 275 Million From Existing Investors, Eyes More Capital Infusion The round values Meesho at USD 3.9 billion, 20 per cent lower than the USD 4.9-billion valuation it commanded during its previous fundraise in 2021.
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Meesho, an e-commerce start-up on Saturday raised USD 275 million from existing investors like SoftBank, Prosus, Elevation Capital and Peak XV Partners, as per regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The capital infusion is part of a larger ongoing round at Meesho.
The company had raised USD 300 million initially. Increased investor interest can potentially increase the round size to as much as USD 500-650 million. According to the reports, the company is in talks and the final amount will be decided in due course.
The round, a mix of debt and equity, will also see Tiger Global ending its hiatus and returning to invest in Meesho for the first time. Of the total amount, the primary capital of around USD 300 million will be used to pay off taxes that arise from flipping the company's base back to India from Delaware ahead of an IPO in India.
The round values Meesho at USD 3.9 billion, 20 per cent lower than the USD 4.9-billion valuation it commanded during its previous fundraise in 2021.
The company, which competes with Walmart-owned Flipkart and Amazon, slipped into break-even in Q3FY24 after recording a profit of USD 5 million in Q2FY24, according to an internal set of documents that it shared with existing and potential investors.
Since 2015, Meesho has raised a total of USD 1.36 bn, including funds from secondary sources.
Founded in 2015 by Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, Meesho claims to have over 15 Lakh sellers on its ecommerce platform from across India. The start-up also claims to have more than 140 million annual transacting users.