Indian Social Commerce Platform Meesho Going Public Early Next Year

Indian social platform Meesho is targeting early 2023 for its initial public offering (IPO), according to a Reuters report Friday (March 4) that cites a source familiar with the discussions.

The Bengaluru-based company, whose investors include Meta Platforms and SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, is working to have the company ready to be listed by the end of 2022 and is evaluating exchanges in both India and the U.S.

“Meesho is filing documents by January next year and wants to essentially be done with the IPO by the first half of 2023,” the anonymous source told Reuters.

Meesho brought in $570 million in fresh capital at a $4.9 billion valuation in a Series F fundraising round in September, with Fidelity Management & Research Company and B Capital Group leading the effort. The company had 17.8 million monthly users on its platform as of September, up 5.5 million in March 2020.

The platform’s resellers hawk unbranded products — from clothes to cosmetics to household appliances — mostly in smaller cities and towns across India. Users can resell products to customers from the supplier marketplace for a profit, most often through WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram.

Meesho hired former JPMorgan Chase investment banker Dhiresh Bansal as chief financial officer in November to get the startup’s books in order ahead of the IPO.

Related: Google Makes Social Commerce Push with Meesho Investment

In October, Meesho talked to search engine behemoth Google about a possible $50 million to $75 million investment. Google has pledged to invest $10 billion in India and has already invested in Indian startups including Dailyhunt, Glance and others.

Meesho became a unicorn — a private company valued at more than $1 billion — in April, when it raised $300 million in a fundraising round led by SoftBank Group that pushed its valued to $2.1 billion, up from its 2019 valuation of $700 million after a $125 million funding effort.