Indian e-commerce firm Meesho leans on AI, new business lines to drive growth

By Haripriya Suresh BENGALURU, Dec 1 (Reuters) – SoftBank-backed Indian e-commerce firm Meesho is doubling down on artificial intelligence and new business lines to expand its user base and move towards profitability, founder and CEO Vidit Aatrey told Reuters in an interview. The firm, which is seeking a valuation of up to $5.6 billion through its initial public offering, competes with Amazon.com and Walmart-owned Flipkart in India's online retail market, which is expected to reach $170-$190 billion by 2030, according to a report by Bain and Flipkart. Its three-day share sale will begin on December 3, with shares expected to debut on India's main stock exchanges on December 10. Meesho has carved out a niche by offering low-priced products without charging sellers a commission, a practice Aatrey said it does not intend to change. The company plans to invest in chat and voice-based AI agents to make shopping easier for first-time users, especially in smaller towns and rural areas where many shoppers are coming online for the first time. Additionally, Meesho wants to invest heavily in technology and marketing "to keep growing" its transacting user base, which jumped 30% in the 12 months ending September 30. Part of this will be scaling up Valmo, its logistics aggregator platform, which Aatrey described as "a big focus" aimed at reducing delivery costs. Aside from tech, the Bengaluru-based firm is also preparing to integrate financial services, including buy-now-pay-later options and short-term credit facilities for sellers, borrowing from the playbook of global e-commerce giants that have improved margins through logistics and financial products. "We look at financial services as a large, long-term, bottom-line opportunity," he said. It is also exploring a push into grocery, one of the most competitive segments in Indian e-commerce, according to Aatrey. Meesho's revenue rose 29.4% to 55.78 billion rupees ($622.96 million) in the first half of fiscal 2026, while its losses narrowed 72.1% to 7 billion rupees, according to its IPO prospectus. ($1 = 89.5400 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Haripriya Suresh in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Skariachan and Janane Venkatraman)

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