Ecommerce platform Meesho has received approval from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to shirt its headquarters back to India from Delaware in the United States, as per MoneyControl reports. With this, the company has taken a step ahead in its journey towards the initial public offering (IPO).
The company will now proceed to merge with it Indian firm and fully complete the process of redomiciling in India. Just to give context here, complete flip back to India is crucial for start-ups if they want to list on the Indian bourses.
Meesho began its shift back to India in 2024, when it simultaneously started preparing for its initial public offering. Its early backer, Y Combinator, had mandated that Meesho’s portfolio companies should be incorporated outside India to simplify access to global funding and support faster scaling.
The ecommerce platform will file its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), once the reverse flipping process if complete in the coming days.
Meesho IPO
Meesho is preparing to go public later in 2025, aiming to raise approximately $1 billion through an initial public offering (IPO). The company has appointed Morgan Stanley, Kotak Mahindra Capital and Citi as its IPO advisers, with discussions ongoing to include JP Morgan in the syndicate potentially.
In fiscal year 2023-24, the SoftBank-backed start-up significantly reduced its losses (excluding ESOP costs) to ₹53 crore, a substantial improvement from the previous fiscal year’s net loss of ₹1,569 crore. Revenue from operations grew by 33% in FY24, reaching ₹7,615 crore from ₹5,735 crore in FY23, driven by an increase in unique yearly transacting users and higher order frequency among existing customers.
In its annual report, Meesho claimed to be the first horizontal Indian e-commerce firm to achieve profitability in fiscal 2024, generating a positive free cash flow of ₹197 crore for the year.
The company, meanwhile, has also approved a plan to issue ₹411.4 crore worth of bonus shares in May. During a meeting last month, shareholders approved a plan to issue bonus shares of ₹1 each to equity shareholders at a ratio of 47:1.
The company's paid-up share capital will increase to ₹420.1 crore from ₹8.7 crore.
