D2C ecommerce giant Meesho's board has approved its conversion into a public entity as it readies for an initial public offering (IPO).
As per the startup's MCA filing accessed by Inc42, board at Meesho passed a special resolution to convert its name from 'Meesho Private Limited' to 'Meesho Limited' in their extraordinary general meeting on June 5.
The conversion will provide Meesho with increased flexibility in pursuing capital market access and align its corporate structure with regulatory expectations applicable to a company proposing to undertake an IPO, the filing added.
The filing further said that although the board has not yet approved or initiated the IPO process, but the company aims to maintain readiness from a regulatory and compliance perspective to enable such an offering when deemed appropriate.
This comes over a month after the company renamed its parent entity to align corporate and brand identity.
Meesho's IPO Plan
Founded in 2015 by IIT alumni Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, Meesho is India's third-largest ecommerce platform by GMV. The company counts DST Partners, Tiger Global Management, Peak XV Partners, Elevation Capital, Facebook and Prosus among its investors.
Earlier this month, the SoftBank-backed ecommerce platform received approval from its shareholders for a proposal to issue 411.4 Cr bonus shares ahead of filing its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with markets regulator SEBI.
The Bengaluru-based startup is said to be looking to raise nearly $1 Bn through its public listing by the end of 2025. It has picked Morgan Stanley, Kotak Mahindra Capital and Citi as bankers for its IPO. The bankers have reportedly pitched for a $10 Bn valuation for the public issue.
Meesho managed to narrow its net loss by 81.8% to INR 304.9 Cr in the financial year 2023-24 (FY24) from INR 1,675 Cr in the previous year. Its operating revenue zoomed 32.8% to INR 7,614.9 Cr in FY24, from INR 5,734.5 Cr, a year ago.
Several Indian startups are converting into public entities, including omnichannel eyewear retailer Lenskart, Media-focused SaaS unicorn Amagi, fintech unicorn Pine Labs, and Walmart-owned PhonePe, preparing for IPOs. Many other companies are also planning to go public in the future.