Meesho announces second ESOP programme worth $5.5 mn in less than a year

Firm has grown 2.8x in terms of monthly transacting users and a 2.5x by orders over past six months; now aims to reach 100 mn users and over 50 mn products by December 2022

Meesho, a fast-growing internet commerce platform, has announced a $5.5 million ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) liquidity programme for all eligible current and former employees with vested stocks. This is the company’s second such liquidity program in less than a year.

Last month, Meesho raised a $570 million Series F from Fidelity Management & Research Company, B Capital Group, and other new and existing partners like Prosus Ventures, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Facebook, growing its valuation by over 2x to $4.9 billion.

“We continue to see meteoric progress not only as a business but also in our efforts to democratize internet commerce for everyone,” said Vidit Aatrey, founder and CEO, Meesho. “Our employees have been at the forefront of driving this momentum, and we want to give them ample opportunities to celebrate and grow with us. As we hire across the board and scale our tech and product talent by 2.5X, ESOPs will give employees high ownership, while providing more opportunities for wealth creation.”

Over the past six months, the company has seen 2.8x growth in monthly transacting users and a 2.5x rise in monthly orders. The company now aims to reach 100 million transacting users by December 2022, increasing its roster to over 50 million products. It plans to go deeper into India’s underserved markets, becoming the preferred e-commerce destination for the next billion users in the country.

This month SoftBank-backed recorded 750 per cent growth in users over last year during its flagship festive sale event - Maha Indian Shopping League. Nearly 60 per cent of the total demand was driven by tier-4+ markets, including faraway locations like Khawzawl in Mizoram and Sopore in Jammu and Kashmir.

The firm had said, through its industry-first 0 per cent commission model launched early this year, sellers on Meesho saved over Rs 13.6 crore during the festive sale event alone. Recording over 10X growth in sales over last year, the company also saw seller participation rise by 314 per cent during Maha Indian Shopping League. Ahead of the sale event, Meesho onboarded over 100,000 sellers with many new initiatives including - free ad credits and zero return shipping charges on the first 30 orders.

Meesho is competing with other social e-commerce firms and start-ups, such as DealShare, BulBul, GlowRoad, Mall91, and simsim. E-commerce firm Flipkart is also betting big on social commerce, which is the use of social network communities to drive e-commerce sales.