Google is in talks to invest over $50-75 million in social commerce platform Meesho, according to a report published in The Economic Times.
The report said the investment will be a part of Meesho's recent financing round and would value the Bengaluru-based company at $4.9 billion.
According to a TechCrunch report, "Google has held discussions to invest over $50 million in Indian social commerce startup Meesho".
Queries to CEO Vidit Aatrey and CFO Dhiresh Bansal did not elicit a response till publishing this report.
Google, which has pledged to invest $10 billion in India, currently backs Indian startups like Dailyhunt, Glance and others.
In April, Meesho became a unicorn after it raised $300 million led by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. The fund-raise then valued it at $2.1 billion--a three-fold jump from its previous funding round of $125 million in 2019 when it was valued at $700 million.
Meesho has Facebook, SoftBank, Sequoia Capital India, Y Combinator, and others as its investors.
The company had said it has delivered orders from more than 100,000 registered suppliers to over 26,000 pin codes in more than 4,800 cities, generating over 500 crore in income for individual entrepreneurs.
This year, Meesho onboarded over 100,000 sellers through initiatives including free ad credits and zero return shipping charges. It presently has 250,000 sellers on its platform. It also switched to a 0% commission model to acquire more sellers on its platform. Ahead of the festive season.
Meesho is also a recent entrant to the e-commerce club.
Meesho’s Maha Indian Shopping League was held from October 5 to October 10, coinciding with Amazon’s Great Indian Festival and Flipkart’s flagship Big Billion Days sale that opened during the period.
The company has also said in a previous interview, it will double down on its grocery vertical (Farmiso). It aims to make online grocery a reality for people from over 200 Tier II+ cities across the country.
