Meesho’s rise looks straightforward when you see its scale today, but the story started small. When Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal launched the company in 2015, they weren’t building a nationwide e-commerce force. They were experimenting with a hyperlocal fashion app called Fashnear. It didn’t take long for them to realise that people shop for clothes differently than they shop for food. Limited choices and full-price items made the model unsustainable, and they went back to the drawing board.
The Pivot That Changed Everything
During their early research, the founders saw women selling clothes through WhatsApp and Facebook groups. That insight flipped the business overnight. Fashnear became Meesho, short for Meri Shop, built on the idea that anyone could run an online store with nothing more than a smartphone and a contact list. No inventory. No setup costs. No storefront.
Silicon Valley Opens the Door
The turning point came in 2016 when Y Combinator chose Meesho for its summer batch. The accelerator put in $120,000, and global investors started paying attention. By 2019, Facebook backed the company with $25 million. By 2024, Meesho’s valuation touched $3.9 billion, and more funding followed in 2025.
Winning the Markets Others Ignored
While Amazon and Flipkart focused on big cities, Meesho built for Tier 2 and Tier 3 India. Its users were new to online shopping, preferred regional languages, and wanted low prices. Three-fourths of Meesho’s orders now come from these smaller towns, with average order values under Rs 300.
Zero Commission Changes the Game
Meesho decided to drop commissions entirely, a move its competitors avoided. Sellers kept the full product value minus shipping. That shift drew over 1.3 million sellers by 2023, many joining e-commerce for the first time. With prices typically 20–30 percent lower than rival platforms, the model worked, particularly for budget-focused shoppers across rural and semi-urban India.
The platform also became a launching pad for women. By 2021, nine million of them had built small online businesses through Meesho, supported by an interface available in eight regional languages.
A Rare Turn to Profitability
For years, Indian e-commerce was synonymous with high cash burn. Meesho flipped the script. Revenue climbed from Rs 5,735 crore in FY23 to Rs 9,389 crore in FY25. Losses shrank dramatically, with adjusted losses dropping from Rs 1,671 crore to just Rs 108 crore. By late 2024, the platform had 187 million transacting users and was the most downloaded shopping app for four straight years.
Valmo: The Logistics Backbone
To cut costs further, Meesho built Valmo, its logistics marketplace. It now manages close to a million shipments daily, covering more than 15,000 pin codes with 6,000 partner networks. Delivery costs fell from Rs 50.45 per order to Rs 37.70, making Valmo cheaper than most traditional partners.
The company also rolled out Varsha, an AI voice bot that handles customer calls, even in noisy environments. It resolves most queries unaided, slashing call-centre expenses by 75 percent and boosting customer satisfaction.
Moving Toward the Public Market
Meesho has started preparing for its public listing. The company is raising Rs 5,421 crore through a mix of fresh shares and an offer for sale. The pricing values the business at more than Rs 50,000 crore, roughly $5.6 billion. Corporate restructuring is already underway to support the domestic listing.
The Playbook Behind the Growth
Four pillars define Meesho’s approach: affordability, strong seller support, efficient logistics, and deep localisation. Instead of chasing affluent city shoppers, Meesho built a marketplace for first-time buyers, families watching their budgets, and small entrepreneurs.
But challenges remain. Most orders still rely on cash-on-delivery, which raises the risk of returns and cash recovery delays. And with millions of small sellers, maintaining consistent product quality is a constant battle.
A Marketplace at National Scale
Even with its hurdles, the company’s reach is staggering. By 2024, nearly 13 percent of India’s entire population had made at least one purchase on Meesho. It now handles around 1.3 billion orders every year, evolving from a low-cost marketplace into a large-scale commerce engine built for India’s next billion shoppers.
