About Meesho
Meesho was founded in 2015 by Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, initially building a social commerce platform that let individuals, particularly women in smaller Indian cities and towns, become resellers of products sourced from Meesho's network of suppliers, marketing and selling those products to friends, family, and social media contacts through messaging apps like WhatsApp without needing to purchase or hold any inventory themselves, since Meesho's suppliers handle fulfillment directly to the end customer, letting resellers earn a margin simply by facilitating the sales relationship and marketing, an approach that created an accessible income opportunity for individuals without capital to invest in inventory or established e-commerce infrastructure.
The company has evolved significantly from its original reseller-focused social commerce model into a broader direct e-commerce marketplace, letting consumers shop directly through the Meesho app and website in addition to through individual resellers, while maintaining a strong focus on serving price-sensitive consumers in smaller Indian cities and rural areas, a demographic segment that larger, more established Indian e-commerce platforms like Flipkart and Amazon India have historically served less intensively than metropolitan, higher-income urban consumers. Meesho has built its supplier network around a very large number of small and medium manufacturers, particularly in categories like affordable apparel, home goods, and accessories, positioning itself as giving these smaller suppliers, who might otherwise lack direct e-commerce distribution capability, access to a very large consumer base across India. The company has emphasized a zero-commission model for suppliers in certain contexts and has continued to expand its logistics and fulfillment infrastructure to serve India's vast and logistically challenging smaller-city and rural markets. Meesho completed its initial public offering in India in 2025. The company had raised very substantial private venture funding from investors including SoftBank Vision Fund, Prosus, and Facebook (Meta) prior to going public, reaching unicorn status as one of India's most prominent e-commerce companies.
