Meesho’s $300 million funding round: Tiger Global bets, SoftBank’s call and more

Meesho is set to raise $300 million from investors including Tiger Global and SoftBank, Moneycountrol reported citing people in the know.

In the funding round, existing and other investors, such as Peak XV Partners and Mars Growth Capital, will also participate, it added. The latest funding round will also mark the return of Tiger Global in India as it will be the investor’s first major round since Scott Shleifer stepped down in November. This will also be one of the very few large rounds that have materialised for Meesho in the past 12 months.

What has been reported about Meesho’s latest funding round?
The latest round is being led by Tiger Global and Peak XV Partners which are together putting in $150 million, the report claimed, adding that Peak XV, along with some of its limited partners (LPs), is likely to put in $70 million. Tiger Global is a new investor in Meesho but Peak XV is an existing backer that had first invested in the firm in 2018. The current round values Meesho at $3.9 billion- which is 20 per cent lower than $4.9 billion valuation during its previous fundraise in 2021. In the process, remaining $150 million will come from SoftBank, an existing investor, which is pushing $30 million.

A source told Moneycontrol, “Meesho is in the process of flipping its base back to India from Delaware and a bulk of the fresh capital will be used to pay the relevant taxes ahead of its planned IPO.”

Meesho’s financial performance
In the previous fiscal year, Meesho halved its losses to ₹1,675 crore from ₹3,251 crore in FY22 and saw its revenue from operations grow 77 per cent from ₹3,232 crore in FY22 to ₹5,735 crore in FY23.