BENGALURU: Social-commerce startup Messho, where
Facebook made its first startup investment in India recently, is in talks to raise another $80-100 million (Rs 553 -692 crore) from South African media giant
Naspers
and China's Hillhouse Capital, said two sources familiar with the development.
Meesho
got about $25-30 million from Facebook, which also owns other social media platforms like WhatsApp and Instagram, two weeks ago.
The startup, founded by IIT Delhi graduates Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, is seeking a valuation of $700 million for this fundraise. "There is a valuation gap right now between the parties and the deal has still not been finalised," said one of the sources mentioned above.
When contacted, a Naspers spokesperson declined to comment on "rumours and speculation." Aatrey was not reachable at the time of filing this article.
Naspers has a significant presence in India with payments platform PayU along with investments in leading startups like food delivery platform --Swiggy and education technology firm-- Byju’s. Hillhouse also recently invested in Swiggy and has also backed auto classifieds portal Cardekho and beverage maker Hector in the past in India.
Started in 2015, the Bengaluru-based startup connects re-sellers to manufacturers to sell goods via social-media platforms. These re-sellers, who are typically housewives and small business owners, use platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp to sell the products like art and craft, fashion wear, home and kitchen products, electronics and travel packages.
The platform is clocking annualised gross sales of about $200 million right now, industry sources added, with 80% of the sales coming from non-metros. Over 80% of these entrepreneurs or re-sellers on Meesho are women, who are selling online for the first time. It typically sees an average order size of Rs 600-700. In 2018, Meesho's overall sales and re-seller base grew by 50 times last year compared to 2017. The number of re-sellers currently stands at 2 million.
Meesho, an alumnus of Y Combinator accelerator, has raised over $65 million, excluding Facebook’s investment, from marquee investors like Sequoia Capital, SAIF Partners, RPS Ventures and Shunwei Capital, among others. It was valued at $250 million in November 2018.
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