Meesho revenue jumps 33% to Rs 7,615 cr in FY24, adjusted loss declines 97%

Meesho has raised over $1 billion from investors like Prosus, SoftBank, Sequoia, Facebook, Y Combinator and several others who have valued at the e-commerce company at $4.9 billion.

Meesho, the low-value e-commerce company saw its revenue from operations jump 33 percent from Rs 5,735 crore in FY23 to Rs 7,615 crore at the end of March 2024 as more new and repeat customers transacted on the platform. Its adjusted loss, which is the result of net loss minus the cost of ESOPs, was down 97 percent from Rs 1,569 crore to Rs 53 crore during the period.

Meesho is yet to officially file its audited financials with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

“This success stems from driving efficiencies across multiple areas like logistics, as well as leveraging Generative AI and Machine Learning for better discovery, improved in-app experience and round-the-clock customer support,” the company said in a press release.

Costs during the year went down since the launch of Valmo, its in-house logistics service, which has helped the company reduce reliance on 3PL players for shipments, and gave it more bargaining power.

Meesho saw 1.3 billion orders being placed on the platform during FY24, up 30 percent from 1 billion recorded a year back.

“What’s particularly exciting is the shift in consumer behaviour. Consumers are not just buying multiple items within the same category, but are also turning to Meesho for a diverse range of their daily needs. As a result, Home & Kitchen, Beauty & Personal Care, and Baby Essentials emerged as the fastest-growing categories,” it said.

While Meesho’s 33 percent revenue growth outpaced its peers and wider e-commerce markets that are growing at 20-25 percent like Flipkart and Amazon, its scale remained smaller and as a result losses have been much lower.

While Meesho has a gross merchandise value (GMV) of over $5.5 billion, Flipkart, the market leader, has a GMV of more than $8.5 billion.

Earlier this week, Flipkart Internet, the marketplace arm of the Walmart-owned company, reported revenues of Rs 17,907 crore for FY24, up around 21 percent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis. At the same time, its losses fell 41 percent to Rs 2,358 crore, according business intelligence platform Tofler.

Flipkart’s revenue increased primarily on the back of a boost from ad income during FY24 and lesser from marketplace fee. Meesho does not charge commission to sellers and earns majorly by running ads on the platform, among other revenue streams.

Amazon’s marketplace entity, the direct rival to Flipkart and Meesho, is yet to file its FY24 results.

Rise in cash balance

Meesho ended FY24 with a cash balance of around $340 million. The company now has a cash balance of $750 million, people aware of the developments told Moneycontrol. The increase of around $400-410 million came from the money it raised from Tiger Global, Peak XV Partners, SoftBank and other investors, which was first reported by Moneycontrol.

Meesho did not comment on Moneycontrol’s queries around its cash reserves.

While the company had initially set out to raise a much smaller amount of $250-300 million, it ended up increasing the round size to around $500-$650 million, Moneycontrol had exclusively reported. While a major chunk of it came in primary capital, the rest was in the form of secondary share sales where early backers like Venture Highway (now merged with General Catalyst), Meta and others sold shares to make way for new investors.

The company is strengthening its balance sheet at a time when e-commerce companies are being threatened by quick commerce startups like Zomato’s Blinkit, IPO-bound Swiggy’s Instamart, Flipkart Minutes, Tata’s BigBasket and others.

Having ample cash reserves allows a company to act quickly, for instance, acquire another firm at the right time, and capitalise on an opportunity that will help it diversify income streams.

Meesho, has been looking to acquire a smaller player in the grocery space, or adjacent markets, as reported by Moneycontrol earlier.