Meesho raises more than half a billion dollars in the fourth biggest funding round this year

• Meesho has raised $570 million, doubling its valuation to $4.9 billion from $2.1 billion reported in April.
• It aims to reach 100 million monthly transacting users by December 2022, growing over seven-times from the current 15 million.
• Meesho will also invest a part of this capital in its grocery delivery marketplace Farmiso, which was launched earlier this year.

Social commerce platform Meesho has raised $570 million in a round led by Fidelity Management and Facebook cofounder-owned B Capital. The company has doubled its valuation to $4.9 billion from $2.1 billion$4 this year.

The company plans to use this capital to double down on its research and development (R&D) teams and acquire more users. It aims to reach 100 million monthly transacting users by December 2022, growing over seven-times from the current 15 million. For this, it will deploy the capital to grow its technology and product team and increase its selection to include over 50 million products.

Meesho among the biggest bets of this year

The year 2021 has been a record-breaking year for Indian startups so far. The new age companies are now hitting the public market, cracking the biggest funding deals and more companies being valued at over a billion dollars.

According to business intelligence firm Tracxn, Indian startups have raised $23 billion in 2021 till September 1. This is significantly higher than the $13 million raised by the industry all through 2020.

Here are some of the biggest funding rounds of 2021 so far:

Startup	Funding	Valuation	Investors
Swiggy	$800 million	$5 billion	Falcon Edge Capital, Goldman Sachs, Think Capital and others
Eruditus	$650 million	$3.2 billion	Accel, SoftBank, Leeds Illuminate, Prosus and others
ShareChat	$647 million	$2.88 billion	Tiger Global Management, Mirae-Naver Asia Growth fund
Meesho	$570 million	$4.9 billion	Fidelity Management, B Capital
Ola	$500 million	$6 billion+	Temasek, Warburg Pincus, others
Byju’s	$490 millon	$16.87 billion	UBS, Blackstone, ADQ, Asmaan Ventures

Walmart-owned ecommerce biggie Flipkart too raised $4, at a valuation of $37 billion, but the company is way past the startup tag to be a part of this list.

Meesho plans to expand its grocery vertical

Meesho will also invest a part of this capital in its grocery delivery marketplace Farmiso, which was launched earlier this year. The company also plans to hire aggressively for this specific vertical.

The six-year-old startup runs a three-sided marketplace with suppliers, resellers and customers at the crux of it. Resellers buy unbranded fashion products from suppliers and later, sell it to the customers via social media platforms like WhatsApp and Instagram. It also has a direct sales channel.

The latest round witnessed participation from new investors such as Footpath Ventures, Trifecta Capital and Good Capital. Even existing investors Prosus Ventures, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Facebook infused an undisclosed amount in the social commerce startup.

DealShare — next in line to enter the unicorn club?

Meesho was founded by Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal in 2015 and is currently the biggest social commerce platform in the country. It competes with Tiger Global-backed DealShare, Accel-backed Glowroad and Elevation Capital-backed CityMall.

DealShare is expected to be the next social commerce startup to enter the unicorn club, a startup with a valuation of over a billion dollars. According to an Entrackr $4, the company is in talks with new and existing investors to raise a fresh round at over $1 billion valuation.

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