Online marketplace Meesho raises $50 million in new funding round

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Nov 6, 2018

The online marketplace Meesho has raised $50 million (Rs 332.6 crore) in a new round of funding only five months after its previous fundraising round and the business will use the investment to work on products and its technology team.

Meesho, which was launched in 2015 to connect resellers with raw material suppliers in sectors including fashion, has raised $50 million in Series C funding from new investors including Shunwei Capital, DST Partners, and RPS Ventures. The business’ existing investors include Saif Partners, Venture Highway, Y Combinator, and Sequoia India, all of which also participated in the funding round. Meesho is one of the fastest growing e-commerce firms in the country and has now gleaned almost $65 million over its past three rounds.

The business intends to use the funds to ameliorate the site and build its technology team. Based in Bengaluru, the business has a focus on arts and crafts and fashion but recently expanded its portfolio to include personal care and nutrition. Meesho is pioneering social reselling model with online chatting facilities where it uses its platform to connect as well as for retailing.

Meesho’s two founders, Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, told Mint that this investment will see the business reach new hights. “We want to build out a supply base—domestically and internationally as in importing from China,” said Aatrey. “On the demand side we have been focused on expanding on our user segment—from housewives about a year ago to now a considerable chunk of our users who are students and working professionals.”

The business clais to have grown by over 100 percent in topline sales over the past year. As many users do not speak English, the platform is currently developing other language versions.