Meesho DRHP: A Look At Shareholding Pattern & Key Executives

After opting for the confidential IPO route for its $1 Bn public float in July, ecommerce major Meesho filed its updated draft red herring prospectus (UDRHP) a few days back. While the IPO would see the company raise fresh capital of INR 4,250 Cr, it will allow Meesho backers like Peak XV, Elevation Capital, Venture Highway, Y Combinator, among others, to partially exit the startup.

The offer for sale (OFS) component, which comprises a total of 17.6 Cr shares, will also see cofounders Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal (legal name Sanjeev Kumar) each sell 1.2 Cr shares.  

A closer look at the 667-page long UDRHP shows that the cofounders (promoters) together hold 78.8 Cr equity shares or an 18.51% stake in the company. Of this, up to 2.3 Cr shares (or 3%) will be sold through the offer for sale (OFS) as part of the IPO.  

Since Meesho’s promoters will hold less than 20% post-IPO due to the offer-for-sale (OFS), the company will use a SEBI-approved mechanism whereby certain institutional investors holding at least 5% of the post-IPO capital can be counted towards the MPC. This ensures that the combined stake of promoters and these institutional investors meets the 20% requirement, and all such shares will remain locked in for 18 months.

As a result, the shares of Aatrey, Barnwal, along with Peak XV Partners, Elevation Capital, Prosus, and SoftBank will be locked in for 18 months from the date of allotment.  

Important to note that the cofounders also received new shares through bonus and scheme allotments earlier this year. On June 1, Aatrey and Barnwal received 9.7 Cr and 3.1 Cr equity shares as a bonus issue, respectively, while on June 22 they were allotted 37.2 Cr and 28.3 Cr shares as a part of allotment pursuant to some company scheme.  

Among institutional shareholders, Elevation Capital V Limited leads the shareholding deck with a 13.61% stake, followed by Peak XV Partners with 12.81% and Naspers Ventures B.V. with 12.34%. Among the founders, Aatrey holds 11.10%, while Kumar owns 7.41%.  

Other major investors include SoftBank (9.31%), WestBridge (3.92%), Astrend India Investment Limited (2.28%) and Y Combinator (1.2%) are some other prominent names.  

Overall, these shareholders and others account for 80.76% of Meesho’s pre-offer equity share capital on a fully diluted basis.  

As part of OFS, Elevation Capital will sell up to 5.54 Cr shares, followed by Peak XV Partners with 3.05 Cr shares and Venture Highway with 1.57 Cr shares. Y Combinator will sell 1.26 Cr shares, while other sellers Man Hay Tam, Golden Summit, VH Capital will offload 0.83 Cr, 0.80 Cr, 1.33 Cr shares, respectively.  

Ahead of filing its red herring prospectus (RHP), Meesho is eyeing an INR 850 Cr pre-IPO placement round. If the company raises a pre-IPO round, the amount would be deducted from its fresh issue.  

The startup plans to use the IPO proceeds to invest INR 1,390 Cr in cloud infrastructure, spend INR 480 Cr on salaries for its machine learning, AI, and tech teams, and infuse INR 1,020 Cr into marketing and brand initiatives. The rest will fund acquisitions, strategic initiatives, and general corporate purposes.  

On the financial front, Meesho’s operating revenue jumped 23% YoY to INR 9,389 Cr in FY25. However, its net loss soared 12X to INR 3,914.7 Cr in FY25 due to one-time costs tied to its IPO process like reverse flip tax and perquisite tax. It incurred a reverse flip alone cost of INR 3,883 Cr. Without these expenses, the loss would have been limited to INR 108 Cr in FY25.  

In Q1 FY26, the company reported a net loss of INR 289.4 Cr on an operating revenue of INR 2,503.9 Cr.

With that, let’s take a detailed look at PW’s board of directors and C-suite.

Who Sits On Meesho’s Board?

Vidit Aatrey

Cofounder Aatrey is the CEO, chairman and managing director of Meesho. In his role, he leads the executive team, sets the company’s strategy, drives key initiatives, and oversees operations and growth. He received a remuneration of INR 5.4 Cr in FY25 

Sanjeev Barnwal

Cofounder Barnwal is a whole-time director and CTO, responsible for implementing the company’s technology vision and ensuring its infrastructure is scalable, secure, and efficient. In the last fiscal, Kumar received an aggregate compensation of INR 4.9 Cr.

Mohit Bhatnagar 

Peak XV’s managing director Bhatnagar has been serving as a non-executive non-independent director on Meesho’s board since 2018.

Mukul Arora

Elevation Capital’s co-managing partner Arora has been Meesho’s non-executive non-independent director since May 2018.

Rohit Bhagat 

IPO-bound PhonePe’s board chairman Bhagat has been serving as an independent director for Meesho since 2023. In FY25, Bhagat received a remuneration of INR 2.1 Cr. 

Hari Shanker Bhartia

Jubilant group’s co-chairman Bhartia has been associated with Meesho as an independent director since July 2024. He is the cofounder and co-chairman of the Jubilant Bhartia Group, co-chairman of Jubilant Pharmova and Jubilant FoodWorks and whole time director of Jubilant Ingrevia Ltd.

Bhartia received a remuneration of INR 82 Lakh in the last fiscal year. 

Surojit Chatterjee

Ex-CPO Coinbase Chatterjee joined Meesho’s board as an independent director in March 2024. As of now, he is the founder and CEO of US-based AI startup Ema. In FY25, Chatterjee received a compensation of INR 1.8 Cr.

Kimsuka Narasimhan

Ex-Kimberly-Clark CFO Narasimhan joined Meesho’s board as an independent director in June 2025. Besides Meesho, she also sits on the board of Airtel. 

Key Managerial Personnel

Dhiresh Bansal 

Bansal is Meesho’s chief financial officer (CFO), a position he has held since November 2021. As the company’s CFO, he is responsible for financial strategy, planning and operations, corporate governance and investor relations. Bansal received a remuneration of INR 3.2 Cr in FY25. 

Rahul Bhardwaj

Bhardwaj is Meesho’s company secretary and compliance officer. He has been with the company since February 2022. He is responsible for compliance with corporate and securities laws and corporate governance practices. Prior to joining the ecommerce major, Bhardwaj had a near 5 year term with Ola Consumers.

In FY25, he received a remuneration of INR 35 Lakh. 

Ashish Kumar Singh

Singh has been Meesho’s CHRO since December 2020. As the talent head, he is responsible for leading the company’s talent strategy, employee experience and leadership hiring. In the last fiscal year, he received a remuneration of INR 2.4 Cr.

Megha Agarwal 

Agarwal is Meesho’s general manager for business, a position she has held over the past five years. She is responsible for driving top line growth through category management and marketplace levers such as quality, selection, seller growth and discovery. In FY25, she drew a salary of INR 2.3 Cr. 

Milan Partani

Partani has been Meesho’s general manager for user growth and content commerce since April 2024. Prior to the latest stint, he was associated with the company from April 2019 to December 2023. In FY25, he withdrew a salary INR 1.4 Cr 

Prasanna Arunachalam 

Arunachalam has been Meesho’s CPO since December 2020. He is responsible for driving the overall product vision and strategy, including user experience and new product development. In FY25, he drew a salary worth INR 1.3 Cr.  

Sourabh Pandey 

Pandey has been serving as the company’s general manager of fulfilment and experience since August 2021. In his role, he is responsible for driving supply chain efficiency, delivery experience, and operational excellence across Valmo. In FY25, he received aggregate remuneration of INR 2.4 Cr.