Meesho raises USD300 mn in funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2

The latest investment values Meesho at $ 2.1 billion and saw participation from existing investors - Prosus Ventures, Facebook, Shunwei Capital, Venture Highway and Knollwood Investment, a statement said.

Meesho will use the funds to strengthen its talent pool across verticals - tech, product, and business, among others, it added. “We take pride at the rate of speed and the scale at which Meesho has grown, positively impacting millions of lives, and creating exponential learning along the way. With the new round of funding, we are extremely thrilled to have SoftBank onboard,” Meesho founder and CEO Vidit Aatrey said.

Meesho is focused on expanding its vision -- from helping aspiring women entrepreneurs to creating Meesho as a single ecosystem that will enable all small businesses in India to succeed online, he added.

“In the last one year, we have seen tremendous growth across small businesses and entrepreneurs seeking to move their businesses online. And with our new vision we will enable 100 million small businesses to start, succeed and lead their operations online with Meesho as their partner in their journey,” Aatrey said.

India has about 60 million micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) currently. Meesho’s vision is to enable 100 million small businesses including individual entrepreneurs to succeed online in India.

Aligning with the new vision, 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 the smallest of sellers to list and do business on Meesho, empowering small business owners to reach customers through all online channels.

“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,” Munish Varma, Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, said.

Over the last six years, Meesho has enabled over 13 million individual entrepreneurs to start their own online businesses, bringing the benefits of e-commerce to more than 45 million customers in the country. Till date, the company has delivered orders from one lakh registered suppliers.

“We have been closely tracking Meesho for the last 18 months and have been impressed by its 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 personalised experience to consumers,” Sumer Juneja, Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, said.