Shares of Bengaluru-based e-commerce firm Meesho surged 95% following its listing last week, catapulting CEO and cofounder Vidit Aatrey into billionaire ranks amid an IPO boom in India.
The stock climbed 36% to 216.34 rupees ($2.39) a share at the close of trading in Mumbai on Wednesday, extending gains since its December 10 market debut to 95% and making it India’s best-performing IPO this year. The rally sent the market cap of Meesho to 976 billion rupees ($10.8 billion), valuing Aatrey’s roughly 10% stake in the company at about $1.1 billion.
Meesho—which also counts billionaire Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank and Singapore-based private equity firm Peak XV among its shareholders—raised 54 billion rupees from its IPO, selling 488.4 million shares at 111 rupees each. The maiden share sale was almost 81 times oversubscribed.
The robust demand for Meesho shares reflects growing investor optimism in India, where more than 300 companies have raised about 1.8 trillion rupees from their IPOs so far this year, surpassing the record fund raising from maiden share sales that was set for for the whole of 2024.
Meesho will use proceeds from the IPO to develop its cloud infrastructure, boost marketing initiatives and fund acquisitions.
Founded in 2015 by Aatrey and Sanjeev Kumar, graduates of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, the company began as a fashion platform called Fashnear. Kumar—who holds a 6.6% stake—has an estimated net worth of $717 million following the rally in Meesho shares.
The founders, who were named to Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 list in 2018, pivoted the business to help retailers sell through WhatsApp and Facebook. At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021, Meesho evolved into a full-fledged e-commerce platform, enabling everyone from small businesses to large manufacturers to sell their products online.
By the end of last year, the company had almost 190 million users and 400,000 sellers. Meesho, which competes with Amazon and Walmart-backed Flipkart, offers low-priced products and charges sellers no commission. It generates revenue from services such as logistics, advertising, and financial products sold on the platform.
The company’s revenue climbed 26% to 99 billion rupees in the year to March 2025, compared to the previous year. It remains in the red, with losses widening to 39 billion rupees from 3 billion rupees in the same period.
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