Meesho said that in just five months since the last round of funding, it recorded 2.5x growth in order volume and added a range of new product categories to its roster including sports and fitness, pet supplies, and automotive accessories
Social commerce platform Meesho became the latest start-up to enter the unicorn club after raising $300 million in a fresh funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, valuing the firm at $2.1 billion, it said on Monday. The Bengaluru-based firm, the first Indian start-up Facebook invested an equity stake in, was last valued at $700 million when it raised funds from Facebook, Naspers and others in August 2019. The latest round, which more than doubled its valuation, also saw participation from existing investors Prosus Ventures, Facebook, Shunwei Capital, Venture Highway and Knollwood Investment. Facebook had in 2019 invested $25 million in the firm, which provides resellers, who largely comprise housewives and small businesses, with a platform to sell their products across social networks like WhatsApp and Facebook.
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The capital raising round is expected to more than double the company’s valuation from its previous Series D round in August 2019, when the reselling platform
raised $125 million led by Naspers and saw participation from Facebook, Elevation Capital (formerly SAIF Partners), Sequoia Capital, Shunwei Capital, RPS and Venture Highway.
Meesho is the second startup
after Digit Insurance to be inducted into the coveted Unicorn club of privately held companies valued at $1 billion or more so far this year.
Meesho and SoftBank Vision Fund did not respond to requests seeking comment till press time on Friday.