Prosus-backed homegrown ecommerce player Meesho, which competes with the likes of Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart, cut its adjusted losses by almost 97% in the financial year ended March 2024, driven by improvement in efficiencies, including the launch of its in-house logistics arm Valmo, and higher revenue.
The company reported Rs 53 crore in loss after tax (excluding cost for employee stock options) in FY24, compared to Rs 1,569 crore in the year before, Meesho said in a release.
The startup attributed the improvement in costs and efficiency across multiple areas such as logistics, customer support, and better app-experience.
“We have significantly reduced shipping expenses and improved delivery efficiency, allowing us to pass savings on to our users,” Meesho said. “The launch of Valmo has further expanded the logistics ecosystem by empowering small and regional logistics partners, which has helped optimise forward shipping costs significantly.”
Further, Meesho said an increase in its users along with improvement in order frequency helped it improve its net sales by about 33% to Rs 7,615 crore in FY24. The company ended FY23 with operating revenue of about Rs 5,735 crore.
“This was primarily driven by an increase in our annual transacting users as well as higher order frequency of our existing loyal customers,” Meesho said.
The ecommerce player delivered 843 million orders during the year, about 36% more than the previous year.
“What’s particularly exciting is the shift in consumer behaviour: consumers are not just buying multiple items within the same category, but are also turning to Meesho for a diverse range of their daily needs,” said Meesho. Beyond fashion, Meesho saw categories such as Home & Kitchen, Beauty & Personal Care, and Baby Essentials growing fast.
Meesho, founded by Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal in 2015, enables small businesses and entrepreneurs to sell their products directly to customers on the platform without any fee.
The company is reportedly in talks to raise a $500-600 million round at a valuation of $3.5-3.9 billion, lower than its last round. In September 2021, Meesho raised $570 million at a valuation of $4.9 billion from investors such as B Capital Group, Prosus Ventures, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Facebook, Footpath Ventures, Fidelity among others.
In April 2021, Meesho had achieved unicorn status after it raised $300 million led by SoftBank. 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.
In October 2023, early-stage VC firm Venture Highway sold its part of its holding in the unicorn to homegrown private equity firm WestBridge Capital with returns of over 50x.