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Meesho opens its doors to public investment next week
MUMBAI: If you’ve been waiting to own a slice of one of India’s buzzing e-commerce success stories, mark your calendar: Meesho Limited is throwing open its initial public offering next Wednesday.
The company has fixed its price band between Rs 105 and Rs 111 per equity share, with bidding kicking off on 3 December and wrapping up by 5 December. Those keen to jump in will need to bid for a minimum of 135 shares, which translates to roughly Rs 14,175 at the lower end of the price range.
“We wanted to pick a valuation that attracts the right long-term shareholders,” says founder and CEO Vidit Aatrey. For him, the IPO is about building durability rather than chasing glamour. “We have been the market leader in value-focused e-commerce, and we will continue to stay focused here in the future.”
A day before the general public gets their chance, anchor investors will get first dibs on Tuesday, 2 December. It’s rather like getting backstage passes before the main concert begins.
The offering itself is a substantial affair. Meesho plans to raise Rs 42,500 million through fresh equity whilst existing shareholders, including founders Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Kumar, are offloading up to 105.5 million shares. The selling shareholders read like a who’s who of venture capital, featuring names such as Elevation Capital, Peak XV Partners, and Y Combinator Continuity.
The company’s financials tell a compelling turnaround story. CFO Dhiresh Bansal notes that Meesho has “moved from cash-flow negative to cash-flow positive: from minus Rs 2,000 crore in FY23 to generating nearly Rs 1,000 crore of positive free cash flow.”
Behind the numbers lies serious tech muscle. Co-founder and CTO Sanjeev Kumar points out that the company has “built one of India’s most advanced AI-commerce apps, designed to be extremely lightweight while understanding 10 languages, image search, voice search and even messy Indian addresses.” The platform processes about 3 petabytes of data daily, making every interaction smarter.
Here’s where it gets interesting for different types of investors. The company has carved up the pie quite deliberately: qualified institutional buyers get the lion’s share at 75 per cent of the offer, with up to 60 per cent of that potentially going to anchor investors. Non-institutional investors can bid for up to 15 per cent, whilst retail punters are capped at 10 per cent.
The shares will list on both the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India, with NSE serving as the designated stock exchange. A formidable lineup of book running lead managers is steering the ship, including Kotak Mahindra Capital, JP Morgan India, Morgan Stanley India, Axis Capital, and Citigroup Global Markets India.
For those wanting to dive deeper into the numbers and fine print, the red herring prospectus is available at investor.meesho.com/ipo-disclosures.
Whether Meesho’s public market debut matches the enthusiasm of its private funding rounds remains to be seen. But one thing’s certain: the next fortnight will reveal just how much appetite investors have for another e-commerce player in India’s increasingly crowded digital marketplace.
eNews
Paisabazaar launches Credit Premier League 2.0
Nationwide campaign rewards highest credit scores with Rs 1 lakh top prize.
MUMBAI: When credit scores become a national league, even your CIBIL report starts feeling like it’s playing in the IPL and Paisabazaar has just kicked off the second season. Paisabazaar, India’s leading marketplace for financial products and the country’s largest free credit score platform, has announced the return of the Credit Premier League (CPL) 2.0, a fun, nationwide initiative to recognise and reward individuals with the highest credit scores.
Building on the success of the first edition, CPL 2.0 introduces higher rewards and broader participation. The individual(s) with the highest credit score in the country will win Rs 1 lakh, while state champions will each receive Rs 10,000. Additionally, all participants from the winning state, the one with the highest average credit score will also be rewarded.
All winnings will be credited directly to winners’ PB Wallet, allowing them to pay credit card bills, recharge mobiles, or settle utility bills seamlessly on the Paisabazaar platform.
Paisabazaar CEO Santosh Agarwal said the campaign aims to make credit awareness more engaging and mainstream. “With CPL, we are bringing together engagement, gamification and rewards to make conversations around credit scores more mainstream,” he noted. “Our focus remains on building a financially aware and credit-healthy Bharat.”
The first edition of CPL saw over 5.5 million participants, with the highest individual score touching 861. Delhi recorded the highest average credit score of 746.
Consumers can participate simply by checking their free credit score on the Paisabazaar platform or app. The CPL leaderboard and rankings will be available exclusively on the Paisabazaar App.
In a country where financial dreams are serious business, Paisabazaar has found a smart way to turn credit scores into an exciting game – because when your financial health gets rewarded, everyone wants to play.
