Aims to enable more sellers, expand categories on its growing social selling platform
New Delhi, June 07, 2018: Meesho, a social commerce platform that helps both resellers and emerging brands build businesses using social media, has raised an $11.5 million Series B funding round led by Sequoia India. Meesho has raised $15M in total so far.
Existing investors SAIF Partners, Y Combinator and Venture Highway also participated in the round.
Meesho provides an online platform, as well as sourcing, logistics and payments tools, to help “social sellers” launch, build and promote online businesses using WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media channels. The company was founded in Bangalore in 2015 by IIT-Delhi graduates Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal.
A typical Meesho social seller, which includes small retailers, housewives, students and even retirees, earns between INR 20,000-25,000 per month by selling products across fashion, lifestyle and many other categories.
To date, Meesho has enabled over 800,000 social sellers in over 500 towns across India to start and grow their businesses with zero capital cost. Together, the small businesses on Meesho’s platform currently reach over four million consumers.
Meesho will utilize this fresh raise to accelerate hiring and product development, while expanding the categories on the platform.
“Lakhs of aspiring Indians are finally realising their dreams of starting their own business online with Meesho,” said Aatrey. “We have grown 20X since our Series A last year, and we continue to be the biggest cheerleader for the social reselling model that we have built from scratch over the last two years. With the new investment, we plan to double down on our mission to create 20M entrepreneurs over the next two years by expanding our suite of tools.”
“Social commerce is the future of e-commerce in India. People buy from people they trust, and that’s what Meesho enables. Entrepreneurs, many of them women, use the Meesho platform to recommend, customize and sell to their family and friends,” said Mohit Bhatnagar, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India Advisors. “Social selling is a huge trend and Sequoia India is excited to partner with Meesho, which is the early leader in this space.”
“Vidit and team have executed amazingly well since Series A, and have demonstrated that Meesho can become a massive alternate distribution channel.” said Mukul Arora, Managing Director, SAIF Partners. “We are really excited to continue backing them, and welcome Sequoia India to this partnership.”
About Meesho
Founded by IIT-Delhi graduates Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, Meesho is building a disruptive social distribution channel via social sellers selling on WhatsApp, Facebook and other social channels. Meesho has so far enabled 8,00,000+ social sellers across 500+ towns to start and grow their online business, with tools around sourcing, logistics and payments. These social sellers are small retailers, housewives, students, retired citizens and many other aspiring entrepreneurs across India.
Meesho is headquartered in Bangalore and has 130 employees.