Online reseller marketplace Meesho raises Rs 22 crore  

Meesho, an online marketplace for resellers, has raised $3.44 million (Rs 22.4 crore) in latest round of funding led by SAIF Partners.

The funding also saw the participation of existing investors Y Combinator and Venture Highway, reported ET. The latest funding has brought overall funding in the startup to $3.7 million.

In May 2016, it raised an undisclosed sum from Sunstone Business School co-founder and director Rajul Garg, who is also an active angel investor. Meesho had also raised an angel round of fund from Kashyap Deorah, co-founder of HyperTrack Rajul Garg, founder of Global Logic and Maninder Gulati, chief strategy officer of Oyo Rooms among others in August 2016.

Owned by Fashnear Techologies Pvt. Ltd, Meesho is based out of Bengaluru. Founded in 2015 by IIT Delhi alumni Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, Meesho allows sellers to set up an online shop through its platform.

The startup mainly creates online pages for merchants which can be managed from its mobile app. Sellers can share these links on Facebook and WhatsApp with customers. The customers can browse through the product collection and chat with the sellers. The sellers get real­time updates of the shop visitors and the products they are visiting. They can start a chat on WhatsApp with these customers right from the app.

It also facilitates sharing on other social media platforms such as Facebook and Pinterest, among others. The Meesho app has on-boarded more than 20,000 re-sellers, around one thousand suppliers and seen over 50,000 downloads.

Indian Housewives generate $9 bn sales through Whatsapp, FB

Meesho was among the three Indian startups chosen by Y Combinator for its summer 2016 batch choose Meesho among three startups for investment. Y Combinator invests $120,000 in tech startups, and picks up a 7% stake.

Among other e-commerce enablers, who recently got the attention of investors are Ace Turtle, Zepo Tech and Shopmatic.

The firm is also looking to scale up its platform by bringing in more resellers through community engagement and referrals. It is also helping housewives earn from within their social networks.

A reseller earns 10-20% commission on each transaction. Mukul Arora, managing director at SAIF Partners said that the startup has potential and can change how long tail products are sold in India.

Meesho has partnered with third-party logistics players to enable deliveries. The company has tied up with payment gateways Razorpay.