Meesho Adds Former Google, JPMorgan Executives To Board In Run-Up To IPO

Meesho Inc. announced on Friday the appointment of four independent directors, shoring up its board ahead of an imminent initial public offering.

The Bengaluru-based e-commerce marketplace named Hari S Bhartia, chairperson of Jubilant Bhartia Group; Rohit Bhagat, chairperson of the board of directors at PhonePe; banking veteran Kalpana Morparia and former Google Vice President Surojit Chatterjee to its board, according to a release.

"With their extensive experience across domains such as technology, finance, entrepreneurship, and governance practices, the newly appointed board members will play a key role in guiding Meesho's key initiatives and steering the company toward sustained success," it said.

Bhartia is also the co-chairperson at Jubilant Pharmova Ltd., Jubilant Ingrevia Ltd. and Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd. Morparia was most recently the chairperson for south and southeast Asia at JPMorgan Chase & Co., apart from being a top leader at ICICI Bank Ltd.

Bhagat's previous board and advisory roles span companies like Axis Bank Ltd., Flipkart and FreeCharge, while Chatterjee is currently the chief executive officer of gen-AI company Ema. He also guided Coinbase through an IPO as its chief product officer in 2021.

Meesho's board also includes co-founders Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, Prosus' Ashutosh Sharma, Peak XV Partners' Mohit Bhatnagar, Elevation Capital's Mukul Arora and SoftBank's Sarthak Misra.

Last August, it was reported that Meesho could be looking at an IPO in the next 18–24 months.

Ever since Meesho announced that it has become the first horizontal e-commerce firm in India to turn profitable, talks on plans of a possible IPO have been gaining momentum, Chief Executive Officer Vidit Aatrey had said in an exclusive interview with NDTV Profit.