is an Indian-origin social commerce platform founded by IIT Delhi graduates Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal in December 2015. It enables and individuals to start their online stores via social channels such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram etc. Meesho is headquartered in Bengaluru, India and was one of the three Indian companies to be selected for Y Combinator in 2016. It was also a part of the first batch of Google Launchpad - Solve for India program. In June 2019, Meesho became to receive investment from Facebook.
History
In mid-2015, Aatrey and Barnwal created FashNear, a hyperlocal fashion discovery and commerce app. By end 2015, they pivoted to Meesho, short for "meri shop", an app that enabled physical stores to take their inventory online and sell through social channels. Shortly afterwards, Meesho pivoted again, morphing into India’s first online distribution channel for long tail products, providing opportunity for individual resellers to sell these products on WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and other social networks.
Funding
In July 2016, Meesho was selected by Y Combinator, the Mountain View, California-based seed accelerator, for a three-month Summer program where it secured $120,000.
Later in August 2016, the startup raised an undisclosed seed round from Indian angel investors VH Capital, Kashyap Deorah, Rajul Garg, Investopad founders Arjun and Rohan Malhotra, Maninder Gulati, Abhishek Jain, and Jaspreet Bindra.
Meesho closed its Series B funding round worth $11.5 million led by Sequoia India in June 2018.
By November 2018, Meesho closed its Series C raise worth $50 million from China’s Shunwei Capital, DST Partners, RPS Ventures, and earlier investors Sequoia India, SAIF Partners, Venture Highway and Y Combinator.
In June 2019, Meesho received Facebook’s maiden investment in an Indian startup.
In August 2019, Meesho raised $125 million in Series D round led by Naspers, with participation from existing investors SAIF, Sequoia, Shunwei Capital, RPS and Venture Highway. Facebook and former Vodafone Group CEO Arun Sarin also participated in the round.
Awards & Recognition
In August 2016, VC-focused data platform Mattermark ranked Meesho 8 among 25 fastest-growing Y Combinator incubated startups.
In Feb 2018, Forbes India featured Meesho founders Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal in its 30 Under 30 list of young achievers. The startup was also one of the growing Indian businesses to be profiled by Forbes Asia in the same year.
In April 2018, Meesho was selected as a part of the first batch of Google Launchpad’s ‘Solve For India’ program for startups building technology solutions for unique Indian challenges.
In September 2018, Linkedin named Meesho one among India’s Top 25 startups to work for based on talent pull, employee growth, jobseeker interest and level of professional engagement with its employees.
