Meesho's IPO opened to strong investor interest, driven by its rapid scaling in Tier-2 and Tier-3 India and a focus on
the mass market. Despite being loss-making, the company's growing user base, improving operating efficiency, and
positive free cash flow are attracting investors betting on future profitability in India's value e-commerce segment.
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Meesho’s IPO opened today to strong investor interest, supported by a grey-market premium of around 45% and positive
analyst sentiment. The company has set a price band of Rs 105–111, positioning itself as a high-volume, low-cost
marketplace that has rapidly scaled across Tier-2 and Tier-3 India.
The issue received strong investor demand as its retail portion was sold out within an hour of bidding.
The IPO comes at a time when India's mass market e-commerce is shifting toward lower ticket purchases, unbranded goods
and regional sellers, sectors where Meesho has emerged a category leader. Its annual transacting user base grew 46%
between FY23 and FY25, far outpacing India’s broader e-commerce shopper growth of 11–20% over the same period.
In FY25 alone, 19.9 crore annual transacting users shopped on Meesho, and a striking 17.4 crore of them came from
outside the top eight metros.
Analysts say Meesho's valuation at around 5x FY25 revenues remains ambitious, but not surprising for a fast-growing
platform in India’s value e-commerce market. Investors are willing to pay a premium because Meesho has scaled quickly in
Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities and built a large customer base.
"The company is still loss-making, but the market is clearly betting that its rising order volumes and improving
operating efficiency will help it turn profitable in the coming years. However, the risk is that Meesho must prove it
can convert this scale into sustainable profits. In a competitive e-commerce industry, high valuations for loss-making
firms can change quickly if growth slows or costs rise. For now, the optimism is about future potential, not present
profits," said Ishan Tanna, Research Analyst at Ashika Institutional Equity Research.
Brokerage ICICI Direct highlights that this deep Bharat penetration, combined with an efficient cost structure and
improving contribution margins, has enabled the platform to expand with discipline. Meesho posted positive free cash
flow for two consecutive years, with LTM FCF of Rs 581.5 crore as of H1FY26.
Even as order volumes surged -- from 102.4 crore orders in FY23 to 183.4 crore in FY25 -- the company deliberately
brought down average order values, part of its strategy to reinforce its "everyday low price" positioning.
A key operational lever is the company’s proprietary logistics system Valmo, which coordinates multiple last-mile
partners and has lowered fulfilment costs while supporting scale. Contribution margins rose by 200 basis points over the
last two years to 4.9%, helped by rising prepaid orders and Valmo-led efficiencies.
On the financial side, Meesho posted FY25 revenue of Rs 9,389.9 crore, up 23.3% year-on-year. EBITDA losses narrowed
significantly over the last two years, although the company remains loss-making, with an FY25 adjusted loss of Rs
2,595.3 crore. ICICI Direct points out that despite these losses, the platform’s high operating leverage and improving
unit economics offer long-term comfort.
A structural advantage is Meesho's zero-commission model, which has attracted a large long-tail of sellers and helped
build a vast catalogue of low-cost unbranded and regional products. The company hosted 15.4 crore daily active product
listings in H1FY26, significantly higher than a year earlier, underscoring its marketplace depth.
However, a sizable part of Meesho’s orders is still delivered through cash-on-delivery, which raises the risk of
cancellations, fraud and higher operational costs. The company also faces competition across logistics, seller
onboarding, affordability and discovery from rivals with deeper balance sheets.
Still, analysts maintain that Meesho sits firmly in India’s fastest-growing e-commerce segment and benefits from a
"capital efficient" model that has already delivered meaningful free cash flow—a rare attribute among scaled consumer
ICICI Direct gave a subscribe tag anchored on this improving operating profile, rapidly expanding user funnel and
attractive relative valuation.
SBI Securities too has a subscribe recommendation, saying Meesho's path to sustainable profitability will be a key
monitorable especially as it continues to make investments in technology, marketing and engineers.
With strong retail interest, a healthy GMP and supportive brokerage commentary, Meesho's debut is set to become one of
the most closely watched listings of the year -- particularly as investors look for signals on how India's mass market
digital consumption story will price in public markets.
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent
the views of Economic Times)
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