Value-focused e-commerce major Meesho is gearing up for one of India’s biggest startup listings yet, with a proposed Rs 4,250-crore fresh issue and an Offer for Sale (OFS) of up to 175.7 million shares by existing shareholders.
The company has also kept open the option of a pre-IPO placement of up to Rs 850 crore, which, if completed, will proportionately reduce the size of the public fresh issue.
The Bengaluru-based company, which recently shifted its holding structure to India, has mandated Kotak, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Axis Capital, and Citi as book-running lead managers for what could be one of the most closely tracked tech IPOs of 2026.
Who’s selling and how much?
Meesho’s listing will unlock liquidity for several of its marquee shareholders. Elevation Capital, one of its earliest institutional backers, is offloading about 5.54 crore shares, the largest block among all sellers. Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India) will sell around 3.05 crore shares, while Venture Highway’s Series 1 vehicle is offering 1.57 crore shares.
Y Combinator Continuity, which invested through its growth arm, will divest 1.26 crore shares, and Golden Summit Limited, a late-stage investor, will offload roughly 80 lakh shares.
Founders Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal are also participating in the OFS, each selling 1.18 crore shares — their first-ever secondary sale since founding the company nearly a decade ago.
Who’s getting the biggest payday?
Early backers such as Y Combinator Continuity, Elevation Capital, Peak XV Partners, and Venture Highway are set for blockbuster exits as Meesho heads for Dalal Street.
Among them, Y Combinator stands out. Its exit value is about 90 times higher than late-stage investor Golden Summit’s, four times higher than Peak XV’s, and roughly three times that of Elevation Capital’s. The Silicon Valley fund bought its shares at just Rs 1.02 apiece, making it one of Meesho’s most lucrative early bets.
Exit value is derived by comparing the prices at which different investors bought their shares — for instance, Y Combinator’s Rs 1.02 entry cost makes its exit value roughly 90× higher than Golden Summit’s Rs 92.43 purchase price.
Elevation Capital, which came in at Rs 3.04 per share, is also staring at a windfall — nearly 30 times higher than Golden Summit’s exit value.
Founders Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, selling shares acquired at near-par prices of Rs 0.06 and Rs 0.02 respectively, will see notional returns running into the thousands-of-times range compared to the last investor on the cap table.
At the other end, Golden Summit Limited, which entered at Rs 92.43 per share during the 2021 valuation peak, will see far slimmer gains — a reminder that timing defines fortunes in startup investing.
What will Meesho do with the money?
Of the Rs 4,250 crore Meesho plans to raise from the fresh issue, a significant portion will go toward scaling its technology and cloud infrastructure, hiring top engineering and AI talent, and expanding brand and marketing efforts.
The company has earmarked Rs 1,390 crore to enhance its cloud backbone, Rs 480 crore for tech and engineering salaries, and Rs 1,020 crore for marketing and brand building. Up to 35 percent of proceeds are slated for acquisitions and general corporate purposes.
If Meesho executes its Rs 850-crore pre-IPO placement, that amount will be deducted from the public fresh issue — though the planned use of funds will remain unchanged.
How do the numbers look?
Meesho’s top line continues to climb at a brisk pace. In FY25, the company reported Rs 9,389.9 crore in revenue, up 23 percent from Rs 7,615 crore in FY24 and 64 percent from Rs 5,734 crore in FY23 - driven primarily by its core marketplace segment.
The company posted a net loss of Rs 3,941.7 crore during the fiscal, impacted by technology investments, ESOP charges, and a one-time Rs 1,346-crore exceptional expense linked to its US-to-India restructuring. However, its adjusted EBITDA loss for the marketplace narrowed sharply compared to FY23, reflecting improving cost discipline.
Crucially, Meesho’s contribution margin — a key profitability measure — improved from Rs 5,658 crore in FY23 to Rs 14,836 crore in FY25. The number of orders grew at a 33 percent CAGR between FY23 and FY25, while order frequency rose to 9.2 per user annually.
Average order values fell to Rs 274, underscoring Meesho’s low-price positioning, but fulfilment efficiencies improved. The cost per order dropped from Rs 50.45 in FY23 to Rs 43.08 in FY25, thanks to scale and the ramp-up of its in-house logistics arm, Valmo.
The company also turned positive on free cash flow, reporting Rs 5,912 crore in FY25 versus negative levels two years earlier. With no debt and over Rs 5,700 crore in cash and investments, Meesho enters its IPO with a strong balance sheet and a lean, asset-light model.
What could trip Meesho up?
Despite its rapid growth, Meesho’s DRHP makes clear that the company is still navigating structural challenges.
Over 75 percent of its orders are cash-on-delivery (CoD), which have a lower success rate of 75.5 percent compared to 98 percent for prepaid orders. The reliance on CoD — a model that ties up working capital, increases return rates, and exposes the company to cash-handling risks — makes Meesho particularly vulnerable to inefficiencies at scale.
The company even disclosed filing a police complaint against 35 delivery vendors in May 2024 for failing to deposit collected cash.
Logistics remains a key vulnerability. In FY25, Meesho shipped 1.59 billion orders, of which 763.5 million were fulfilled through Valmo, its in-house logistics platform, and 824 million via third-party partners. Any service failure, partner exit, or technology outage in Valmo’s network could disrupt deliveries and inflate fulfilment costs.
The company is also contesting tax and legal disputes worth over Rs 710 crore, including a Rs 572-crore income tax claim, alongside vendor and GST-related litigation. High product return rates — around 7.6 percent of shipped orders — and a seller base concentrated in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi add further exposure to operational and regional disruptions.
Frequent competition from Amazon, Flipkart, and newer quick-commerce rivals continues to exert margin pressure, while the platform’s reputation hinges on curbing counterfeit or low-quality listings. With thin margins and heavy CoD dependence, Meesho’s path to sustained profitability remains the biggest question mark as it heads to the public market.
How much are Meesho’s founders and directors paid?
Meesho’s founders are drawing pay packets that reflect their leadership through the company’s growth phase. Vidit Aatrey, Chairman and CEO, and Sanjeev Barnwal, Whole-time Director and CTO, each receive an annual salary of Rs 4.95 crore, along with perquisites and benefits under company policy. Both also earned a variable pay of Rs 1 crore each for FY24, taking Aatrey’s total annual compensation for FY25 to Rs 5.43 crore and Kumar’s to Rs 4.93 crore.
Among independent directors, Rohit Bhagat, Surojit Chatterjee, and Hari Shanker Bhartia together received Rs 4.73 crore in FY25, with Bhagat being the highest paid at Rs 2.06 crore. Non-executive, non-independent directors did not receive any compensation or sitting fees during the year.
The company does not have any bonus, profit-sharing, or deferred compensation plan for its directors, and no director remuneration was paid through subsidiaries.
What’s next for Meesho?
For all its challenges, Meesho’s story has a powerful undercurrent — it’s building India’s Pinduoduo moment. By democratising e-commerce for small-town consumers and sellers, it has carved out a niche few others can replicate.
The IPO will test investor appetite for high-growth, loss-making tech companies returning to the market after a lull. If priced right, it could not only cement Meesho’s position as India’s value-commerce leader but also reopen the gates for a new generation of startup listings in 2026.
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