Naspers leads new funding in social commerce company Meesho

BENGALURU:

Naspers

Ventures, the investment arm of the South African media giant, has led a $125-million round in social commerce platform Meesho, along with participation from other new backers —Facebook and former Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin. The capital-raise also saw the participation of existing backers SAIF Partners,

Sequoia Capital

India, RPS Ventures and Venture Highway.


The deal is expected to value the company in the range of $600-700 million — an over two times rise from its $250-million valuation in November 2018.

Founded by IIT-Delhi batchmates Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, both 29 years old, the company has raised about $190 million till now with this round. Started in 2015, the Bengaluru-based startup connects resellers with manufacturers to sell goods via social media platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook. These resellers are typically housewives and small business owners, who sell products like art and craft, fashion wear, home and kitchen products, electronics and travel packages.

For Meesho, it typically sees an average order size of Rs 600-700. In 2018, Meesho’s overall sales and reseller base grew 50 times compared to 2017. It currently has 2 million resellers across 700 towns and 15,000 suppliers. “The phenomenal growth they are already experiencing shows that Meesho has hit a sweet spot in the market and is well-poised to serve the next 500 million online shoppers,” said Naspers head (India Investments)

Ashutosh Sharma

.