Meesho IPO Opens This Week: Affordable E-Commerce Unicorn Targets Major Market Debut

Meesho, the Indiane-commerce company known for its wide range of affordable products, is set to offer its shares to the public through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) that will go live this week.

The Bengaluru-based company, which achieved a valuation of over $1 billion and elevated to ‘Unicorn’ status in 2021 is backed by global investors such as SoftBank, Prosus, Elevation Capital and Peak XV Partners. Meesho’s first steps into the public market comes at a time when India’s digital commerce ecosystem is seeing renewed investor appetite.

Meesho began in 2015 as FashNear Technologies Pvt. Ltd., and was originally built to help small merchants and home-based resellers sell through WhatsApp and Facebook. Over the years, the company evolved into a tech platform connecting consumers, sellers, logistics partners and content creators.

Its sharp focus on affordability, zero-commission selling, and discovery-led shopping helped it penetrate deeply into India’s tier-2 and tier-3 towns, and by effect, the said economic markets as well. The company eventually restructured, scaled its marketplace and converted into a public limited company in June 2025 before filing its offer documents.

The platform’s rise to unicorn status came on the back of strong investor support and a unique model that prioritised low-cost unbranded goods - an approach that resonated with millions of first-time online shoppers. In the 2024-25 Financial Year, Meesho connected more than five lakh sellers with 199 million annual transacting users, facilitating 1.8 billion orders during the year.

User engagement continued to climb, with order frequency increasing and net merchandise value growing 29 percent year-on-year to ₹29,988 crore. The company also recorded free cash flow of over ₹1,000 crore in FY25, despite remaining loss-making due to one-off restructuring and tax costs relating to a group reorganisation.

The IPO is slated to raise about ₹5,421.20 crore, comprising a fresh issue of ₹4,250 crore and an offer for sale of ₹1,171.20 crore by existing shareholders and promoters. Reports suggest that the price band has been fixed between ₹105 and ₹115 per share, with a minimum lot size of 135 shares. According to market observers, Meesho’s shares are trading at a ₹40 premium in the grey market, indicating a possible listing price of around ₹151 per share and a premium of over 35 percent.

While the company remains in the red, with a reported loss of ₹3,941.7 crore in FY25, its revenue has consistently climbed over the last three financial years. Industry analysts continue to view Meesho as the country’s largest platform in terms of placed orders and number of transacting users, a marker of its strength in the market.

The company’s expenditure plan following the IPO has drawn significant attention. Meesho intends to invest heavily in technology, with ₹1,390 crore allocated to cloud infrastructure through its subsidiary Meesho Technologies Private Limited. Another ₹1,020 crore will be directed toward brand building and marketing.

Another allocation that has raised some brows is Meesho’s earmarking of ₹480 crore specifically for paying salaries of existing and replacement hires across its AI, machine learning and engineering teams - one of the largest personnel-focused allocations seen in a recent consumer-tech listing. The company has also capped inorganic expansion spends, with no more than 35 percent of proceeds to be used for acquisitions and strategic initiatives.

The IPO anchor book is anticipated to open on December 2, while allotment is expected on December 8 and listing on December 10 on the BSE and NSE. KFin Technologies is the registrar, and Kotak Mahindra Capital, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Axis Capital and Citigroup are acting as book-running lead managers.

With a strong brand presence, deep reach beyond India’s metro cities, and a data-driven marketplace model, Meesho’s public issue will be closely watched by investors keen to be a part of the next phase in India’s digital commerce story.

Complete Supreme Court Judgment on GST from 2017 to 2024 with Free E-Book Access, Click here

As Meesho prepares for its market debut, the listing represents a turning point for a company that began as a small-scale selling tool and has since grown into one of the country’s most influential e-commerce ecosystems.

Click the blue button below to access Meesho’s Draft Red Herring Prospectus.

Support our journalism by subscribing to Taxscan premium. Follow us on Telegram for quick updates