Meesho’s upcoming IPO sets a price band of ₹103-111, valuing the company at $5.74 billion. Early investors in Meesho, including Elevation Capital and Peak XV Partners, are sitting on significant paper gains after the value-focused ecommerce company announced a price band of ₹103-111 per share for its upcoming initial public offering (IPO), valuing it at ₹51,535 crore ($5.74 billion).
Cofounders Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, who have been tagged as Meesho’s promoters, together hold an 18.5 per cent stake– worth ₹8,749 crore at the upper end of the price band. Both are selling 16 million shares each, or a 0.3 per cent stake, and are expected to realise about ₹178 crore individually from the offer for sale (OFS).
CEO Aatrey, who holds 472 million shares, will see his stake valued at ₹5,245 crore, while chief technology officer Barnwal’s holding is currently valued at ₹3,504 crore.
Early backers of the company are also set to get big returns. Elevation Capital, Meesho’s largest shareholder with a 13.6 per cent stake, is sitting on a 37x return on its investment. The venture capital firm, which invested in Meesho at an average cost of ₹3.04 per share, now holds a stake valued at around ₹6,432.2 crore. Elevation is trimming its offer for sale (OFS) portion to 2.4 crore shares from the earlier planned 5.5 crore and will realise roughly ₹271.3 crore.Peak XV Partners, the second-largest shareholder, with 12.8 per cent stake valued at around ₹6,055 crore first backed the online commerce platform in 2018. The VC firm has also reduced its OFS size and will now sell 1.7 crore shares, amounting to a cash realisation of around ₹193 crore.
Among other early investors, Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator is one of the big gainers. Its 51 million shares, representing a 1.2 per cent stake, are valued at ₹576.3 crore, translating to a 109-fold paper return. YC’s other win this year came when stock broking and wealthtech startup Groww went public in a ₹6,632 crore IPO earlier this month. YC’s 10.14 per cent stake in Groww is now valued at around ₹10,046 crore.
Dutch investor Prosus, which holds around 12.3 per cent in Meesho, will see its stake valued at about ₹5,834 crore. Another major backer, the Masayoshi Son-led SoftBank, holds 9.3 per cent in the etailer valuing its stake at ₹4,400 crore, while WestBridge Capital’s 3.9 per cent shareholding is worth around ₹1,853 crore.Another early investor, Venture Highway, which was merged with US venture capital firm General Catalyst last year, has seen a 2.3x return, with its holding valued at ₹174.3 crore.
Venture Highway, which had invested in the company’s seed round in 2016, sold a portion of its stake in Meesho in early 2024 to WestBridge Capital, ET reported last year. The firm then said it made returns of more than 50 times on its investment in Meesho from its first vintage fund.
Other global investors, which are not participating in the OFS, are also holding significant stakes.
The IPO opens on December 3and closes on December 5. The company has reduced the OFS component from 17.5 crore shares to 10.5 crore shares, while the fresh issue portion remains unchanged.
Aatrey told ET the company is doubling down on an asset-light strategy while working to widen the user base as it gears up for the public listing.
Rising IPO activity among new-age companies has seen venture capital and growth equity investors post blockbuster returns this year. As reported by ET on November 17, about half a dozen tech companies, including Urban Company, Lenskart, Groww, Ather Energy, Bluestone and Pine Labs, that have listed this year have collectively unlocked more than ₹15,000 crore ($1.6 billion) via the OFS route alone for their shareholders.
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