Meesho reportedly in talks to raise $250 million from Softbank Vision Fund

• Meesho raising $250 million in funding at a valuation of around $1.5-2 billion.
• Following the current funding, the startup has raised over $465 million in funding.
• Investors including SAIF Partners, Venture Highway, Sequoia Capital India, DST Partners, among others invested in the startup.

Bengaluru-based social ecommerce platform Meesho is reportedly in the final stage of raising $250 million (about Rs 1,815 crore) in a fresh funding round from Japan-based Softbank's Vision Fund. Other existing investors are also likely to participate in this funding round.

According to the reports, the new fundraising could lead the startup valuation to somewhere around $1.6-$2 billion, making it the second unicorn startup of the year. ET reported.

In August 2019, Meesho had raised $125 million from Venture Highway, Sequoia Capital India, SAIF Partners, RPS Ventures, Facebook, among others as part of its Series D funding round. At that time, its valuation was stood at $700 million.

To date, the startup has raised over $215.2 million in a total of eight funding rounds, according to the CrunchBase report.

Founded in 2015 by IIT Delhi graduates Sanjeev Barnwal and Vidit Aatrey, Meesho (Fashnear Technologies Pvt. Ltd.) is one of India's leading online reselling platforms that enables anyone to start a business with zero investment.

Meesho claims to have more than 10 million registered resellers generating on average Rs 15,000 income per month. Currently, the platform more than 7 million customers across 500+ cities.

The startup counts Elevation Capital (formerly SAIF Partners), RPS Ventures, DST Partners, Shunwei Capital, Facebook, Prosus & Naspers, Venture Highway, Arun Sanin (former CEO of Vodafone Group Plc), Investopad, Y Combinator, Sequoia Capital India, and Rajul Garg (Co-founder of Sunstone Business School) as its investors.

During the FY-19, Meesho reported a 20x increase in losses to Rs 100.42 crore in FY-19 from Rs 4.9 crore in FY-18. For the FY-20, it reported a 3.5x increase in revenue to Rs 307 crore up from Rs 88 crore in FY-19.

The Bengaluru-based platform competes with DealShare, GlowRoad, BulBul and Shop101, among others.

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