Meesho IPO opens on December 3: Know the business model, strengths and risks before applying

Meesho IPO details

Meesho IPO aims to raise ₹5,421.20 crore through its public issue, which is a 100% book-built and includes a fresh issue worth ₹4,250 crore and offer-for-sale of ₹1,171.2 crore.

The company has fixed the price band of the issue at ₹105 to ₹111 per share. The lot size, or the minimum bid quantity to apply for the issue is 135 shares. This equates to a minimum investment amount of ₹14,985 per lot at the upper end of the price band for retail investors.

Meesho IPO timeline

Meesho IPO will remain open for bidding from December 3 to December 5, 2025. After the bidding is closed, the allotment of shares is expected to be finalised on December 8.

Successful bidders can expect the shares to be credited to their demat accounts by December 9, with others receiving refunds on the same day. Meesho shares are scheduled to list on the BSE and NSE on December 10, 2025.

Meesho IPO financial snapshot:

Meesho IPO objective

• Investment in cloud infrastructure: The company will utilise ₹1,390 crore towards investment in cloud infrastructure via its subsidiary, Meesho Technologies Private Limited (MTPL).
• Investment in subsidiary: The company will utilise ₹1,020 crore to invest in MTPL, its subsidiary, for expenditure towards marketing and brand initiatives.
• ML & AI technology development: The company will utilise ₹480 crore towards salaries of its existing and replacement hires for the Machine Learning and AI and other technology teams.
• Inorganic growth and general corporate purposes: Part of the IPO proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, inorganic growth through acquisitions and other strategic initiatives.

Meesho IPO GMP

The grey market premium (GMP) for the IPO is currently in the range of 31-32%. Strong early demand in the unofficial grey market shows the company’s IPO is likely to see huge interest once the IPO launches on December 3.

About the company

Meesho has emerged as India’s largest e-commerce platform in terms of annual transacting users and number of orders placed in the twelve months ended September 30, 2025.

The platform enables consumers to access a wide range of products at low prices, while the sellers on the platform benefit from low costs. This is reflected in the average order value (AOV), which has reduced from ₹336.71 in FY23 to ₹274.27 in FY25. Meanwhile, the number of orders placed rose from 102.4 crore to 183.4 crore during the same period.

Between FY23 and FY25, the annual transacting users on Meesho grew at a CAGR of 20.7% from 13.6 crore to 19.8 crore. Meesho platform has demonstrated high levels of engagement, with 13.53 billion average daily product views in FY25. Content commerce contributed ₹12.08 billion in Marketplace Net Merchandise Value (NMV) in the last twelve months ended on September 30, just 23 months after its launch.

During the six months ended September 30, 2025, Meesho had 153.72 million daily active product listings, against 109.65 million in the prior period. Additionally, 73.18% of orders as of September 2025 came from personalised feeds and recommendations driven by its discovery-led model, which encourages high engagement.

The company’s seller base has grown significantly from 513,757 annual transacting sellers in FY25 to 706,471 in the LTM that concluded on September 30, 2025. The widespread participation of small manufacturers and local traders was made possible by the company’s zero commission model, inexpensive fulfilment, and GST-optional onboarding.

The company operates one of India’s largest asset-light fulfilment networks, handling 29–31% of national e-commerce shipments (ex-hyperlocal) in FY25. From 1.83% of shipped orders in FY23 to 48.08% in FY25 and 64.52% in the six months ending September 30, 2025, its in-house logistics arm, Valmo, has experienced significant growth. Meesho supported 18,098 active logistics providers, five end-to-end partners, and 102,349 delivery agents.

A key component of Meesho's business strategy is technology and artificial intelligence. As of September 2025, the platform processed 5.92 billion data points daily and 4.24 billion data points in FY25. It also allows search in 11 languages. Its ML engine, BharatMLStack, processed 1.91–2.85 PB of data every day, enabling up to 217.17 trillion feature retrievals and 6.40 trillion real-time inferences.

Strengths and opportunities

• Everyday low price proposition: Zero-commission marketplace and scale-driven fulfilment efficiency enable sellers to price competitively. Meesho’s average cost charged to sellers has steadily decreased as platform scale improves logistics economics. The company’s scale lowers sellers’ average cost per order, while a large ecosystem of consumers, sellers, and logistics partners drives efficiency and low prices.
• Asset-light business model: The company operates an asset-light business model, without manufacturing, inventory, logistics, or private label products, enabling capital-efficient growth compared to traditional retail or inventory-heavy e-commerce models. The company has improved operating efficiency alongside scale.
• Strong technology-first architecture: Technology powers every aspect of the company’s model with 56.77% of its workforce (1,182 out of 2,082 employees as of Sep 30, 2025) in tech roles, including 163 in AI/ML, enabling personalisation, fulfilment optimisation and fraud prevention.

Risks and threats

• High marketing spend and focus on increasing customer base: Annual Transacting Users rose to 234.2 million (LTM Sept 2025) from 175.09 million a year earlier, supported by aggressive marketing. Advertising and promotional expenses increased to ₹606.21 crore in H1FY26, forming 9.64% of total expenses, up from 7.12% in H1FY25. Any slowdown in user acquisition or reduction in engagement, due to quality issues, refunds, or competition, could materially impact GMV and revenue growth.
• Continuous losses since inception: The company has incurred losses since its inception and has experienced periods of negative operating cash flows. Revenue growth and net merchandise value (NMV) have been driven by significant investments in marketing, technology, and manpower, which have increased overall expenses.
• High cash on delivery orders: Despite improvement, 72% of shipped orders in H1FY26 were still CoD-based, compared to 78.51% in H1FY25. CoD success rates (75.85% in H1FY26) remain significantly lower than prepaid success rates (96.39%), increasing logistics costs and return rates. CoD also exposes Meesho to risks of cash pilferage, evidenced by the May 2024 complaint filed against 35 delivery vendors for non-remittance of collected cash.