Meesho enters Dalal Street, marking a decade-long journey from Koramangala
After a decade-long startup journey, Meesho marked a milestone with its IPO on Wednesday. Shares of the newly-listed company were trading at a 45% premium to its issue price, taking its total market cap to Rs 72,751 crore.
“Bharat today has arrived on Dalal Street,” said Meesho CEO and MD Vidit Aatrey, culminating one of the most significant ecommerce initial public listings of India and marking a milestone in the company’s decade-long promise of democratising ecommerce.
The momentum at the National Stock Exchange was hopeful, yet infectious, as early investors, employees, and the management team rang the bell and grabbed the signature bull statue by its horns early Wednesday morning.
IPO proceedings began around 9 AM, with a lamp-lighting ceremony, following speeches from promoters and co-founders, Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Kumar.
“The journey wasn’t smooth. There were weeks and months when our biggest bets didn’t land the way we wanted them to. There were days when the metrics broke, and we didn’t know why they were breaking. There were days when we rolled back, where a single rollback wiped out months of effort. And then there were days when just showing up felt harder than any problem. But we still did. Every single day. Some days with excitement, some with doubt, some simply because the work had to be done. And over time, that consistency, not one defining moment, not one big idea, is what built Meesho,” said Sanjeev Kumar, Whole-time Director and CTO of Meesho.
Started from a flat in Koramangala, Bengaluru, Meesho launched as a reseller platform in 2015. Post the COVID-19 pandemic, it pivoted to a consumer-facing model as digital adoption took off and more consumers got comfortable buying goods directly online.
“If it wasn’t for Meesho, ecommerce would still be restricted to a privileged few—the top 3-5% of India,” shared Elevation Capital’s Mukul Arora, who continues to serve on the board of the company.
Elevation, which invested in Meesho in 2017 and was its single largest shareholder then, now holds an 11.9% stake after the IPO, valued at nearly Rs 8,950 crore, giving it a 53X gain on its investment.
Shares of the horizontal marketplace opened 45% higher than its issue price, at Rs 161.2 apiece, signalling significant gains for promoters and investors selling their early bets in the Bengaluru-based company.
Meanwhile, Prosus and SoftBank—who together hold just shy of 22% in Meesho—have been on the sidelines of the IPO by not offloading any shares in secondary sales. Both investors are betting long on Meesho, which has turned out to be one of the only ecommerce players to generate free cash flow in India.
“Meesho was a contrarian bet for Prosus at the time, but it was made with deep conviction. We have since invested in each round that Meesho has raised. We are thrilled at their blockbuster listing today and, as long-term investors, remain bolstered in our belief in the headroom for growth,” Ashutosh Sharma, Head of India Investments at Prosus, told YourStory.
Beyond investors, Meesho’s IPO has also unlocked wealth for its early employees, thanks to ESOP liquidation opportunities during the public offering.
On Wednesday, many of them milled around the stage, clicking photographs with the marigold-decorated bell, while also checking the internal orders dashboard to see if the IPO publicity had led to a surge in orders.
Meesho has joined the cohort of new-age startups setting up shop on public markets, often accompanied by tighter scrutiny and accountability from a larger group. Investment platform Groww, digital payments firm Pine Labs, and edtech company PhysicsWallah also saw strong market debuts.
Edited by Suman Singh