Meesho Boosts Board With Former JP Morgan Chairman Kalpana Morparia, Three Others

Ecommerce platform Meesho has onboarded four senior industry executives as independent directors to its board as it aims to ramp up its customer base in the space.

The newly appointed members include former JP Morgan chairman Kalpana Morparia for South and South East Asia, Jubilant Bhartia Group’s founder and co chairman Hari S Bhartia, Ema Unlimited’s founder and CEO Surojit Chatterjee and PhonePe’s non executive chairman of the board Rohit Bhagat.

The appointees will assist in navigating the evolving ecommerce landscape and advancing Meesho’s strategic goals to become the preferred ecommerce destination for internet users in the country, the company said in a statement.

As of now Meesho has an overall six members, which includes the company’s cofounders Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, Prosus Ventures’ head of investments and M&A Ashutosh Sharma, Peak XV Partners’ MD Mohit Bhatnagar, Elevation Capital’s comanaging partner Mukul Arora and SoftBank Investment Advisers’ partner Sarthak Misra.

Founded in 2015 by Aatrey and Barnwal, Meesho claims to have over 15 Lakh sellers on its ecommerce platform from across India with more than 140 Mn annual transacting users. So far, it has raised over $1.08 Bn.

The startup counts DST Partners, Elevation Capital, Facebook and Prosus among its investors. 

In May, it was reported that Chatterjee joined the Bengaluru-based company’s board as an independent director. Additionally, the reports also confirmed that Bhagat was inducted in June 2023 as Meesho’s first independent director. 

This board’s new construct comes as a move to save its unstable leadership setup with multiple exits consecutively. 

Meesho’s latest leadership exit was in March, by Harsh Chaudhary, CXO of monetisation after a two-year stint with the company.

Last year, Utkrishta Kumar, chief experience officer at Meesho’s business division, stepped down from his role after a five-year tenure. Shortly after that, Meesho’s chief product officer Kirti Varun Avasarala also resigned following a four-year tenure.

Despite the pressures on its leadership roles, the ecommerce unicorn reported an operating revenue of INR 5,735 Cr in FY23, a 77% increase over INR 3,232 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Fashnear Technologies, the parent entity of Meesho, reported a net loss of INR 1,675 Cr in FY23, a 48% drop from INR 3,248 Cr in the previous year.

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