'Democratise E-Commerce': Meesho Bets Big On Growth While Staying Capital-Efficient, Says CFO

Meesho Ltd. is reinforcing its long-term strategy to scale without compromising efficiency or shareholder value, believes the management. Chief Financial Officer Dhiresh Bansal said the company will continue investing behind growth while staying true to its mission of democratising e-commerce for everyone.

He emphasised that capital discipline remains a priority: “We’ll continue to focus on making sure that we’re not diluting shareholders by being less capital efficient.”

Investor confidence mirrors this outlook. Saurav Jain, Principal Investor for India Ecosystem at Prosus, noted Meesho’s strong fundamentals:
“Meesho has remained FCF-positive for the last two years. A lot of upside remains for the company. There is significant potential for Meesho to grow from here, and Prosus remains excited about Meesho’s long-term growth.”

Jain added that long-term focused companies with strong consumer orientation will continue to be exciting for the general public, underscoring optimism around Meesho’s trajectory.

The company had listed on the National Stock Exchange at Rs 162.50 per share, marking a premium of 46.40% over their IPO price. Shares of Meesho are currently trading nearly 60% higher at Rs 177.49 apiece, as of 02:00 p.m.

The Bengaluru-based online marketplace, which competes with companies like Amazon and Flipkart to sell a range of products, was booked 79.03 times on the final day of subscription.

The company will use Rs 1,390 crore from the proceeds to invest in cloud infrastructure in Meesho Technologies Pvt. Ltd, its subsidiary, while Rs 480 crore will be used to pay the salaries of existing and replacement hires for the Machine Learning, AI and technology teams.

The company will also allocate Rs 1,020 crore to marketing and brand initiatives in its subsidiary Meesho Technologies.