Meesho Takes The Confidential IPO Route

Meesho is accelerating its public listing. The ecommerce unicorn is likely to file its DRHP with SEBI in the coming weeks via the confidential pre-filing route.

What’s The Plan? The company plans to raise $700 Mn to $800 Mn from its public offering, which is slightly lower than the previously reported number of $1 Bn. However, discussions are still ongoing, and the size of the IPO could change. 

Why The Confidential Route? Introduced by SEBI in 2022, the confidential pre-filing route enables IPO-bound companies to keep their DRHPs private until listing and quietly address compliance gaps without incurring reputational risk or facing media scrutiny. The likes of Groww, Shiprocket, PhysicsWallah, boAt, et al. have also chosen this route for the listing. 

Will The Market Play Along? Meesho’s road to market debut may not be so smooth. For starters, Meesho reported a loss of INR 304.9 Cr in FY24 (albeit down 82% YoY). Then, the ongoing market volatility has forced many, including Zetwerk and PayU India, to postpone their listing plans. 

On the flip side, what may work for Meesho is its focus on the zero-commission model for sellers, a broad range of users (especially non-metros) and low average order values (AOVs). This helped the Vidit Aatrey-led company lap up INR 7,614.9 Cr operating revenue in FY24. In contrast, rival IPO-bound Flipkart’s marketplace business reported sales worth 17,907.3 Cr against a loss of INR 2,358 Cr in the same fiscal. 

With Citigroup, Kotak Mahindra Capital and Morgan Stanley in the mix as bankers, all eyes are now on Meesho’s next move as it gears up to file its IPO papers via the confidential route.

From The Editor’s Desk

Refyne Bags INR 35 Cr Debt: The fintech soonicorn has secured around $4 Mn in debt from Stride Ventures to meet its working capital requirements. Founded in 2020, Refyne enables employees to access their salaries on demand.

Q-Comm Platforms Under Scanner: The Centre is looking to tighten norms for quick commerce players amid growing complaints over hygiene and safety standards. This comes after Maharashtra revoked the licences of Zepto and Blinkit warehouses over food safety violations. 

Nazara’s INR 380 Cr Bulk Deals: Rekha Jhunjhunwala, the wife of late ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, sold 29.75 Lakh shares of the gaming major via open market deals in June. As per the stock’s last closing price of INR 1,273.85, the deal totalled INR 379.6 Cr.

Govt’s Flip Flops On UPI MDR: The finance ministry has clarified that the government has no plans to reintroduce MDR on UPI payments. This follows reports that the Centre was planning to reinstate the levy on digital payments over INR 3,000.

PowerUp Money Bags $7 Mn: The wealthtech startup raised the funds in a seed round co-led by Accel, Blume Ventures and Kae Capital. The startup helps its customers manage mutual fund portfolios.

New Ecommerce Policy On The Anvil? Commerce minister has said that the proposed policy is under active discussion and will be revised to make it more contemporary. The Centre released the draft papers of the said ecommerce policy in 2019. 

JFS, BlackRock’s Latest Gambit: The Jio Financial Services and BlackRock joint venture has received a go-ahead from SEBI to function as an investment adviser. The Reliance-backed financial services company already operates in the lending, payments, and insurance sectors.

Tata Steps Up Semicon Pitch: Tata Electronics has sent a “couple of hundred” of its employees to PSMC’s Taiwan facility for training. The conglomerate has invested INR 91,000 Cr to set up a fab facility in partnership with PSMC in Gujarat’s Dholera. 

Inc42 Startup Spotlight

Can Soket AI Power India’s Foundational LLM Dream?

India is yet to churn a foundational AI model that can compete with the likes of global giants like OpenAI and Google. The issues plaguing the country’s AI ambitions range from high compute costs and limited access to large datasets. That did not stop IISc alumnus Abhishek Upperwal from founding Soket AI. 

Setting The Indic LLM Wheel In Motion: The Bengaluru-based GenAI startup aims to build the country’s own text-based LLM. Triggered by Sam Altman’s remarks about India’s lacklustre AI capabilities in 2023, Soket AI launched Project EKA to create a 120 Bn-parameter, open-source Indic foundational model. It has released Pragna-1B, an open-source multilingual model, and is monetising a real-time speech API called TensorStudio.

Realising its pitch, Soket AI was one of the three startups selected under the government’s INR 10,037 Cr IndiaAI Mission to build an indigenous AI model. 

The Bigger Picture: With its models tailored to Indic languages and domains like defence, education and agriculture, Soket AI is well-positioned to serve India’s AI-specific needs. The startup plans to launch a 7 Bn-parameter model within six months as a precursor to its larger foundational model.

Despite limited resources, Soket AI is strategically positioned, thanks to government backing, early academic collaborations and a focussed revenue stream via TensorStudio. With a growing team, expanding data capabilities and plans to raise $15 Mn, can Soket AI power India’s foundational LLM dream?