Meesho IPO: Vidit Aatrey On The Valmo Edge And Why Quick Commerce Is Not A Priority

From a fashion-based quick delivery platform (Fashnear) in 2015 to a social commerce network, to a full-stack ecommerce model, and finally to a technology enabler of logistics companies, Meesho’s penchant for experimentation and iteration are an open secret.

Now the SoftBank-backed company is entering one of the largest public markets in the world with its INR 5,421 Cr listing. On November 28, Meesho stated that it has set a price band of INR 105 to INR 111 for its initial public offering (IPO), which is set to open on December 3.

The Meesho IPO will comprise a fresh issue of up to INR 4,250 Cr and an OFS of up to 10.55 Cr shares. At the upper end of the price band, the total IPO size would be INR 5,421 Cr (about $606.2 Mn).

As the first horizontal ecommerce company in India to go public, all eyes will be on how Meesho tackles the challenges of profitability and balancing this with innovation, iteration and product pivots. 

One could say that this challenge has been a defining feature of the company’s journey thus far. As it prepares to go public, the Bengaluru-headquartered firm intends to continue innovating even as it looks to improve its profitability, CEO and cofounder Vidit Aatrey told Inc42. 

“We will keep experimenting, keep iterating, trying new things. Some of them will work and they will become the next Valmo, the next content commerce platform. Some of them will not work and we will move on from there. So, I think we will continue to take these long-term bets,” Meesho’s Aatrey said ahead of the company’s big week. 

He believes there need not be a trade-off between financial discipline and innovation, noting that Meesho has demonstrated this in the past by iterating while simultaneously cutting costs.

For instance, losses fell by 72% YoY to INR 701 Cr in H1 FY26 from INR 2,513 Cr in the year-ago period, as revenue breached the INR 5,500 Cr mark in the first half of the current fiscal year. A large part of this has to do with the company taking charge of its fulfilment stack. 

For a company that does not have the long history that Flipkart and Amazon do, the asset-light model built around its in-house logistics platform Valmo has been a game-changer, along with its insistence on not charging sellers a commission.

“It is basically the technology that has supercharged our asset-light infrastructure. You will not find another new-age firm where 57% of its workforce is deployed in the product and technology team. This underlines the centrality of technology to our operations and cost-cutting,” Aatrey told Inc42. 

The CEO opened up about the IPO journey, Meesho’s innovative DNA, and why the company is doubling down on affordability rather than chasing the quick commerce frenzy.

Edited Excerpts…

Inc42: How does this feel, especially as Meesho becomes the first major horizontal ecommerce player to go public ahead of Amazon and Flipkart?

Vidit Aatrey: Honestly, we haven’t had much time to sit back and absorb it all yet; there’s still so much happening in rapid succession.

We’ve built a differentiated story from the ground up, centred on democratising ecommerce for everyday Indian consumers, small businesses, and logistics partners.

Today, we’re India’s largest ecommerce platform by customer base and order volume, serving millions in underserved markets. In the last 12 months ending September 2025, we grew our Net Merchandise Value (NMV) by 44% year-on-year and orders by 53%, processing a staggering 230 crore orders.

We want to keep growing this while being very, very financially disciplined. For the last two years, we have been free-cash-flow positive. For FY25, we generated about INR 1,000 Cr in free cash flow and our goal is to kind of keep replicating this, keep growing faster in the market and keep expanding our free cash flow. So, that’s basically what drives us.

Inc42: But you are surrounded by ecommerce giants like Amazon or Walmart-backed Flipkart. What sets you apart from the competition?

Vidit Aatrey: Since we started, all the names that you mentioned have existed and a lot of people have tried for this particular market.

What we continue to do is stay very, very user-first. We continue to improve our value proposition of first bringing consumers on ecommerce for the first time on WhatsApp, creating a zero-commission business model, innovating in logistics using Valmo, and now doing content commerce. So, I think it is basically doubling down on innovation while maintaining financial discipline.

We scaled up Valmo without much cash burn. Our asset-light approach and leveraging technology over heavy infrastructure has been crucial. Post-IPO, we’ll replicate this: push for growth while expanding free cash flow. We’ve outlined horizon-two bets in our prospectus, allocating budgets for experiments in AI, new categories, and potential inorganic opportunities. Some will succeed like Valmo, our logistics platform; others won’t, and we’ll move on. The goal is disciplined innovation; we don’t want any trade-offs between creativity and fiscal responsibility.

Inc42: Speaking of Valmo, how have you cracked the logistics puzzle in India’s fragmented, under-penetrated markets?

Vidit Aatrey: Technology is the simple answer. When we launched Valmo, no one believed you could deliver consistent, reliable service using existing logistics companies without owning assets. But we drew from our marketplace roots, where we proved you don’t need inventory to ensure quality.

Take the case of Uber, which does exactly this. They are the cheapest cab company in the world and do not own any cabs because they bring existing cars online and improve their utilisation. Marginal costs are low and you can get access to that cab at a much lower price. In the same way on Valmo, we are able to bring existing logistics companies with their existing assets. This allows us to offer services at far lower prices to merchants.

Within our tech stack, we have robust features like real-time feedback for partners, trust and safety models, and now our GeoIndia LLM, which we’ve trained to handle challenging Indian addresses in the markets that we serve. It converts them into precise geo-locations, boosting delivery accuracy. With 57% of our headcount in tech and product, we’ve stitched together a network that scales efficiently. Valmo isn’t just a backbone; it’s a moat that keeps our ecosystem thriving.

Solving For Customer Trust

Inc42: Returns and refunds were once a big challenge for Meesho. How have you addressed consumer trust issues?

Vidit Aatrey: We’ve come a long way by investing in sophisticated quality systems. Every seller gets a reputation profile based on early orders, ratings, reviews, and return rates. Based on this, we help scale the good ones and curb the bad ones.

On the buyer side, we maintain personalised quality scores for our 230 Mn consumers, recognising that “good quality” varies by individual. This enables precise demand-supply matching. Technology plays a huge role: AI algorithms ensure users see products they’ll love, reducing dissatisfaction. We’ve seen incidents drop steadily.

Inc42: Your order volumes have skyrocketed — 53% YoY in the first half of FY26. What’s driving this, and how are you managing AOV declines?

Vidit Aatrey: Our AOV has dipped slightly by INR 5 to 10 this year, but that is because we prioritise affordability, introducing lower-priced items that appeal to budget-conscious shoppers. But this is intentional: cheaper logistics via Valmo keeps margins stable as a percentage of NMV. Whether it’s a low or high-priced product, our economics hold. The mix shift reflects our mission of fulfilling aspirations on limited incomes without compromising profitability.

Inc42: Will you ever move away from the zero-commission model, especially as rivals charge hefty fees?

Vidit Aatrey: Absolutely not. Zero commission is core to our philosophy. We believe it eliminates barriers for merchants of all sizes, fostering a vibrant ecosystem. We’ve seen it work across categories, including Meesho Mall. In emerging markets like China, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, value ecommerce platforms thrive on similar models, with ads driving bottom lines.

We’ll stick to this, as it aligns with democratising access. Changing it would undermine everything we’ve built.

Will Meesho Join The Quick Commerce Race?

Inc42: Quick commerce is all the rage, but Meesho hasn’t jumped in. Have you also thought of shortening delivery timelines?

Vidit Aatrey: We’re laser-focussed on affordability, not convenience trends like quick commerce.

I think we are very, very focussed on our value proposition around affordability and we will continue to focus there, I think, even going forward. For India’s emerging consumers, price matters more than speed. We’ve served 30 Mn users in top cities where quick commerce thrives, yet their frequency with us only grows.

Quick commerce has existed for the last few years without denting our base. We’ll continue making products accessible on limited budgets, fulfilling aspirations without shifting tracks. That’s our edge.

Inc42: Ad revenues are booming for ecommerce platforms. What’s Meesho’s strategy?

Vidit Aatrey: We have seen our ad revenues consistently grow. In our case, we have a very different kind of merchant ecosystem. Our merchants may not be the most tech-savvy; they don’t understand what a cost per click (CPC) looks like, or what bidding looks like. So, what we have done is make our approach to advertising very different. We have built a very simple product.

On our platform, you come and you tell us what is the minimum return on ad spend you want and what is the budget, and then we take care of everything else. They don’t have to do targeting, they don’t have to figure out a CPC build. We now use AI agents to kind of do that on their behalf and we have seen results because of this simple ad product.

Drawing from global value ecommerce giants, where ads form the majority of profits, we see huge potential. As our ecosystem expands, ads will contribute substantially to the bottom line without complicating the user experience.

Inc42: Why the 40% cut in the Offer for Sale (OFS) portion?

Vidit Aatrey: The goal was always regulatory compliance. So, the SEBI requirement is that at IPO you should have at least a minimum 10% of the company shares being sold between primary and secondary. So, I think at that point in time we had an agreement with some of our larger shareholders that in case we are not getting to that 10% mark, then they would kind of come in to fill the balance portion.

A lot of our shareholders, even at the beginning of this journey, were not interested in selling shares, believing in the incremental value we have created for them. And now that we are closer to the listing and pricing is kind of available, some of them don’t require to sell as much, so they have decided to kind of reduce their selling part.

Inc42: Valuation buzz has been intense for recent IPOs. How did you navigate this without direct benchmarks against listed horizontal ecommerce companies?

Vidit Aatrey: Our focus was attracting the highest-quality investors for broad distribution. Banker discussions and roadshows shaped the band, prioritising long-term value creation over short-term hype. We’ve always aimed to deliver for private investors; now, we’ll do the same for public shareholders.

[Edited By Nikhil Subramaniam]