Online shopping platform Meesho is set to open for subscription on Wednesday, attracting investors with a solid gray market premium. The excitement has been fueled by positive commentary from analysts.The company is targeting proceeds of Rs 5,421 crore from the IPO, which will remain open until 5 December. The price band has been set between Rs 105 and Rs 111 per share, valuing Meesho at Rs 50,096 crore ($5.6 billion) at the upper end. Its current gray market premium is hovering around 45%, according to ET. What makes this debut particularly significant is the backdrop: India’s e-commerce ecosystem is tilting towards lower-ticket shopping, unbranded merchandise and regional sellers. This shift has benefited Meesho more than any other large platform.
Meesho IPO
Ahead of the IPO, the SoftBank-backed e-commerce platform Meesho has secured a little over Rs 2,439 crore from anchor investors ahead of its initial public offering. The anchor tranche attracted demand of more than Rs 80,000 crore, translating to nearly 30 times oversubscription, according to market sources.A total of 60 investors participated in the anchor book, featuring a mix of leading domestic institutions and major global names. The Government of Singapore, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Tiger Global, Fidelity Funds, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were among those allotted shares, as per a circular uploaded on the BSE website.On the domestic side, allocations were made to SBI Mutual Fund, UTI MF, Tata MF, Motilal Oswal MF, Axis MF, Bandhan MF and HSBC MF, among others. In total, Meesho allotted 21.97 crore equity shares at Rs 111 per share.The issue consists of a fresh share sale worth Rs 4,250 crore and an offer for sale of 10.55 crore shares estimated at Rs 1,171 crore at the upper band. Meesho has stated that funds raised will be deployed towards investment in cloud infrastructure, marketing and brand spending, inorganic expansion through acquisitions and other strategic plans, and general corporate purposes. The company is expected to debut on the stock exchanges on December 10.
Should you subscribe?
ICICI Direct has assigned Meesho a subscribe rating, citing strong funnel expansion, better operating performance and attractive relative valuation. SBI Securities has also recommended subscribing while emphasizing that Meesho’s path to durable profitability will require ongoing monitoring as investments in tech, marketing and engineering continue.“The company is still loss-making, but the market is clearly betting that its rising order volumes and improving operating efficiency will help it turn profitable in the coming years. However, the risk is that Meesho must prove it can convert this scale into sustainable profits. In a competitive e-commerce industry, high valuations for loss-making firms can change quickly if growth slows or costs rise. For now, the optimism is about future potential, not present profits,” Ishan Tanna, research analyst at Ashika Institutional Equity Research told ET.With interest from retail investors running high, a solid GMP and largely favorable brokerage outlook, Meesho’s listing is shaping up to be one of the most closely followed market events of the year and could signal how India’s mass-market digital consumption trend will be valued on the public exchanges.
Winning formula — and weak spots
A major differentiator for Meesho remains its zero-commission model, which has drawn a large pool of sellers and helped build a very wide catalog focused on unbranded and regional products. In H1FY26, the marketplace recorded 15.4 crore daily active product listings, sharply higher year on year.At the same time, the business still leans heavily on cash-on-delivery, a format that heightens cancellation and fraud risks and increases operational costs. Competition remains intense too, including in logistics, seller acquisition, affordability features and product discovery, with large rivals capable of spending more aggressively.Even so, many analysts say Meesho sits squarely inside the fastest-growing part of Indian e-commerce and has already shown a degree of capital efficiency uncommon in scaled tech listings.
financial scoreboard
Between FY23 and FY25, the company recorded a 46% jump in annual transacting users, far ahead of the broader industry’s 11–20% growth. In FY25, 19.9 crore customers placed orders on Meesho, and 17.4 crore of them came from outside the biggest eight metropolitan markets, underlining the platform’s deep presence across Tier-2 and Tier-3 India.The shopping platform ended FY25 with revenues of Rs 9,389.9 crore, marking a 23.3% year-on-year expansion. EBITDA losses have narrowed substantially across two years, though the company remains loss-making overall, reporting an adjusted FY25 loss of Rs 2,595.3 crore. According to ICICI Direct, improving unit economics and operating leverage mitigate long-term concerns despite the losses.(Disclaimer: Recommendations and views on the stock market, other asset classes or personal finance management tips given by experts are their own. These opinions do not represent the views of The Times of India)
