WestBridge Capital to pick up secondary stake in Meesho at around $3 billion

India-focussed investment fund WestBridge Capital, which backs both private and public market companies, is likely to acquire a small stake in online commerce marketplace Meesho in a secondary transaction valued at about $3 billion, people aware of the matter said.

Venture Highway, one of the early investors in Meesho, is selling a majority of its stake in the company to WestBridge Capital in the secondary share sale, people in the know added.

“The round is almost through and is being priced at about $3 billion. WestBridge is picking up about 2% stake in Meesho,” a person in the know said.


Venture Highway has an around 3% stake in the firm, a person aware of the matter said, adding that it will retain a small stake.

Emails sent to Meesho and Venture Highway seeking comment did not elicit an immediate response Friday evening. WestBridge Capital declined to comment.

The proposed deal was first reported by Techcrunch.

WestBridge has been actively funding technology companies over the past few years, having backed SaaS company Freshworks, ecommerce firm Dealshare, edtech PhysicsWallah and Lead among others.

SoftBank-backed Meesho was last valued at nearly $5 billion in 2021 following its $570 million funding led by US-based Fidelity and B Capital. Typically, secondary transactions take place at a discount to the previous primary valuation.

For Venture Highway, which first invested in the firm in 2015, this would be a significant exit having backed the startup early on.

On August 7, Meesho said it posted a profit on a consolidated basis after tax for July. It did not disclose the specifics of its profit numbers, but founder and chief executive Vidit Aatrey said the company was on track to record similar profits in the coming months and quarters.

For Meesho, which competes with bigger rivals like Walmart-owned Flipkart and Amazon India, the upcoming festive season would be critical in order to clock a higher rate of growth compared to the first six months of 2023. ET had reported in April that the firm was trying to reduce its cash burn in order to save capital and had readjusted growth expectations accordingly. It is said to be on an annualised revenue run-rate of around $750 million.

While Flipkart and Amazon have announced that their flagship sale events would start on October 8, Meesho would start its sale on October 6.

The funding round comes at a time when big-ticket deals continue to be rare in the startup sector. However, late-stage startups are seeing secondary transactions between investors. FirstCry and Lenskart are among companies that recently closed secondary sale of shares, onboarding new investors.