If you thought ecommerce in India today is all about quick commerce, think again. Away from the buzz around 10-minute deliveries, Meesho is showing that a new marketplace model can flourish and even get ready for an IPO before Flipkart, the OG ecommerce marketplace to come from India.

Meesho flirted with quick commerce in the early days through its Super Store and other experiments, but it quickly realised that the best way to attract the next 100 Mn shoppers from India’s Tier 2, 3 and 4 cities will only be possible with a marketplace approach and an open seller model.

So while there have been questions about Meesho’s changing business model over the years — from social commerce to affiliate commerce — its current avatar has proven to be robust.

The Softbank-backed company, which has raised more than $1.6 Bn in debt and equity funding over the years, is likely to become the first horizontal ecommerce marketplace to go public from the Indian startup ecosystem. As such this is a massive deal for the ecosystem as well as for Meesho.

Meesho’s Profit Card

The Bengaluru-based unicorn filed its DRHP with SEBI via the confidential route last week, and is expected to raise up to $1 Bn through the public offering.

Meanwhile, its closest rival, Flipkart is also preparing for a mega IPO, but Meesho is likely to outpace Flipkart to the public listing. Indeed, Flipkart’s recent focus has turned to quick commerce and fintech even as it dangles the prospect of an IPO.

If anything Meesho has other advantages over Flipkart too. Not least of which is profitability. For context, Meesho’s FY24 adjusted loss (exclusive ESOP costs) dropped to INR 53 Cr from INR 1,569 Cr in FY23 and revenue grew by 33% to INR 7,615 Cr.

Overall, the company reported a loss of INR 305 Cr for the year, compared to Amazon’s loss of INR 3,469 Cr against revenue of INR 25,406 Cr. Flipkart’s marketplace revenue stood at INR 17,907 Cr and losses were at INR 2,358 Cr in FY24.

While Amazon and Flipkart operate from a larger revenue base, Meesho’s strength lies in its bottomline, something that will matter a lot to retail investors later when the time for the IPO comes.

Plus, Meesho topped the charts for the most downloaded commerce apps in India in 2025, as per Sensor Tower data. The company claimed to have 187 Mn unique annual transacting users at the end of December 2024 with over 1.3 Bn total orders placed.

So Meesho’s scale is growing rapidly even as it closes in on profits. And this will be vital going forward.

Playing The Volume Game

While resting its premise on value over velocity, Meesho’s gross merchandise value or GMV hit $6.5 Bn in FY25, according........

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