Meesho, Shiprocket among 7 companies to get Sebi nod to launch IPOs

As many as seven companies, including Softbank-backed e-commerce firm Meesho and Temasek-backed e-commerce enablement platform Shiprocket, have secured Sebi's approval to raise funds through initial public offerings (IPO), an update with the markets regulator showed on Monday.

Others that received regulatory approval are Rajputana Stainless, Skyways Air Services, German Green Steel and Power, Allied Engineering Works, and Manika Plastech.

All seven companies, which filed their preliminary IPO papers with Sebi between May and July, obtained its observations during October 14 to 31, the update showed.

In regulatory terms, Sebi's observation is equivalent to clearance for launching a public issue.

The approval comes at a time when the Indian market is experiencing a boom in primary market activity.

Meesho's proposed IPO comprises a fresh issue of equity shares aggregating up to Rs 4,250 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of 17.57 crore equity shares by certain existing shareholders.

The OFS includes the sale of equity shares by some of Meesho's early investors, including Elevation, Peak XV, Venture Highway and Y Combinator, among others.

Meesho plans to utilise the net proceeds towards investment for cloud infrastructure in Meesho Technologies Private Limited, payment of salaries of existing and replacement hires for the machine learning and AI and technology teams for AI and technology development undertaken by Meesho, expenditure towards marketing and brand initiatives and funding inorganic growth through acquisitions and other strategic initiatives and general corporate purposes.

Shiprocket, according to sources, is looking to raise around Rs 2,000-2,500 crore through the public issue.

Meesho and Shiprocket filed their IPO papers through the confidential pre-filing route. This route allows companies to withhold public disclosure of details under the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) until later stages.