Meesho co-founders exercise 27 lakh options ahead of IPO

Entrackr · 22d

Exclusive: Meesho co-founders exercise 27 lakh options ahead of IPO Meesho’s co-founders, Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Kumar, have exercised equity shares under the company’s 2024 ESOP plan—a move that comes as Meesho gears up for its Initial Public Offering (IPO). The board at Meesho has passed a resolution to allot 20,65,211 equity shares to Vidit Aatrey and 6,59,323 equity shares to Sanjeev Kumar following the exercise of stock options, according to regulatory filings accessed from the Registrar of Companies (RoC). Entrackr estimates that the exercised shares from the 2024 ESOP plan are valued at approximately Rs 1,023 crore ($120 million). However, Meesho clarified in a statement that these shares are not additional but part of the previously allocated ESOP pool. “Further, the valuation referenced in your email is incorrect, as these shares do not carry any additional value; they are simply existing ESOPs that the Founders have chosen to exercise,” the company’s spokesperson said. Meesho is planning to go public this year and aims to raise $1 billion through its IPO. Media reports indicate that the company will soon file its draft documents and is targeting a listing around Diwali. In 2024, Meesho announced its largest-ever ESOP buyback program, worth Rs 200 crore (approximately $25 million). This initiative is set to benefit around 1,700 past and present employees, spanning from junior executives to senior leadership. Meesho is the third largest horizontal e-commerce company after Flipkart and Amazon. The Bengaluru-based platform targets value-conscious consumers across tier II and III cities. It also operates logistics platform Valmo which currently handles over 50% of its overall orders. The firm recorded a 33% year-on-year revenue growth to Rs 7,615 crore in the fiscal year ending March 2024, while reducing its adjusted losses by 97% to Rs 53 crore during the same period. Notably, in the first nine months of FY25, the company claims to have delivered 1.3 billion orders.