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Meesho files confidential IPO
MUMBAI: Meesho, one of India’s fastest-growing e-commerce platforms, has filed a confidential draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)—marking its first major step toward a public listing. The move allows the company to fine-tune its offer documents privately with regulators before going public, a route increasingly popular among Indian tech firms preparing to list.
Founded in 2015 by Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, Meesho built its model around affordability, simplicity, and deep regional access—serving value-conscious shoppers in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. The platform, which offers zero-commission selling for merchants and operates in multiple regional languages, has attracted over 150 million annual transacting users. Its focus on low-ticket, everyday essentials has helped it compete with giants like Amazon and Flipkart, particularly in unbranded fashion and general merchandise.
Meesho has shown significant financial momentum ahead of the IPO. In FY24, it recorded revenues of Rs7,615 crore, a 33 per cent jump year-on-year. More notably, it reduced its net loss to Rs305 crore—down sharply from Rs1,675 crore in FY23—thanks to logistics optimisation and better ad-spend efficiency. In a key pre-IPO restructuring, the company also completed a reverse-flip, moving its parent entity from the US to India to simplify governance and improve eligibility for local listing.
The public offering is expected between September and October 2025, with lead managers including Citi, Kotak Mahindra Capital, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, and Axis Capital. Market participants suggest Meesho could seek a valuation between $6.5–7.5 billion, positioning it among the most anticipated Indian tech IPOs of the year.
Meesho’s filing comes amid a broader wave of confidential listings in India. So far in 2025, Indian firms have raised nearly $6 billion through IPOs, with more than 140 companies in the regulatory pipeline. Investor appetite for digital-first, scalable platforms remains strong—particularly those showing a clear path to profitability.
Key drivers for Meesho include its continued expansion into smaller towns, enabled by UPI penetration, affordable mobile data, and a rising appetite for value-led online shopping. The company’s private-label brands in fashion, home, and beauty now account for nearly 20 per cent of sales, and its Meesho Express logistics arm is targeting 24-hour delivery in the top 200 districts to boost stickiness and margins.
Despite these headwinds, the company’s ability to cut losses while scaling revenues has buoyed investor confidence. The confidential filing gives Meesho up to 18 months to finalise its listing—offering time to strengthen financials further, and potentially turn a profit before debuting.
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Rakesh Menon joins Paytm as avp – lending
Fintech product leader takes on new role after building digital lending, payments and credit products across fintech ecosystem
MUMBAI: Rakesh Menon has joined Paytm as assistant vice president – lending, taking on a new role focused on strengthening the company’s lending and credit products.
Prior to this, Menon worked at Profectus Capital Pvt Ltd as chief manager – payments based financing and digital lending.
At Profectus, he designed and launched digital credit products for merchants with variable cash flows, including overdraft-linked and revenue-share lending models. He led end-to-end LOS–LMS API integrations with payment partners and aggregators, enabling real-time underwriting, disbursal and repayment workflows.
He also worked on funnel optimisation initiatives using journey analytics, improving onboarding, KYC and disbursal conversion by 35 per cent. He developed ecosystem partnerships for transaction-data-based credit assessment and automated settlement systems, and collaborated with credit and data science teams to strengthen risk models and early delinquency detection.
Menon standardised partner onboarding and API frameworks, reducing go-live timelines by 40 per cent and improving digital scalability.
Before Profectus Capital, he worked at PayU as senior manager – presales lead – enterprise business from August 2022 to August 2023. He set up a national presales function for fintech and digital commerce clients, aligning solutions such as EMI, BNPL, BBPS and offer engines to merchant requirements.
He also helped improve conversion rates by around 15 per cent through merchant persona mapping, demo frameworks and structured sales playbooks, working closely with product and go-to-market teams.
From April 2019 to July 2022, Menon served as business unit head – SMB – direct acquisitions at Worldline, where he built the SMB online payments vertical from scratch. The business scaled to Rs 2,500 crore in annual transaction volume, growing at 45 per cent year-on-year.
During this period, he introduced paperless onboarding processes including eKYC and eSign, developed partner dashboards and CRM automation systems, and integrated platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce and Tally to expand merchant adoption.
Across roles, Menon has worked across digital lending, payments and merchant financing, with experience in product development, ecosystem partnerships, API integrations and fintech-led growth strategies.
At Paytm, he will focus on scaling lending products and strengthening digital credit infrastructure within the company’s financial services ecosystem.
His appointment comes as fintech firms continue to expand their lending and embedded finance offerings in a competitive market.
