E-commerce firm Meesho said it has appointed four independent directors to its board: Kalpana Morparia, Hari S. Bhartia, Surojit Chatterjee and Rohit Bhagat.
The SoftBank-backed firm said that these new appointments would support Meesho’s commitment to fostering a culture of transparency and strong corporate governance. The firm noted that each brings expertise from various sectors to further drive Meesho’s mission of democratising internet commerce for everyone.
Their expertise is also expected to help the firm in its efforts towards a successful initial public offering (IPO) which is more than a year away, according to sources. The Bengaluru-based firm has raised a total of $1.36 billion since its inception in 2015.
Meesho competes with players such as Amazon, Flipkart and Reliance’s JioMart to tap India’s e-tailing sector, which is poised to experience a fivefold growth, surging from $59 billion in 2022 to an estimated $300 billion by 2030. This is fuelled by value-seeking ‘mass’ consumers, states a report by Redseer Strategy Consultants.
Meesho’s new board members are expected to play a key role in advancing its strategic goals.
Founded by IIT graduates Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, the firm aims to become the preferred e-commerce destination for the next billion users in the country.
“Meesho’s steadfast focus on unlocking the potential of India’s small business economy has helped us change the e-commerce landscape, making it more inclusive and accessible to billions of people across the country,” said Vidit Aatrey, founder and chief executive officer at Meesho. “Our ability to adapt to our users’ needs and embrace bold strategies has led to remarkable growth, including our recent milestone of becoming the first horizontal e-commerce platform in India to achieve profitability. As we embark on the next phase of growth, we are confident that their (board) collective wisdom and diverse perspectives will play a pivotal role in steering the company towards new milestones.”
One of the new board members, Hari S. Bhartia, is the founder and co-chairman of Jubilant Bhartia Group. The Jubilant Bhartia Group has four flagship companies listed on Indian stock exchanges, with a combined market cap of approximately $7.65 billion, including Jubilant Pharmova Limited, Jubilant Ingrevia Limited, Jubilant FoodWorks Limited, and Jubilant Industries Limited. He is also the former president of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and a key contributor to various educational, scientific, and technological programmes of the Government of India.
Another member, Kalpana Morparia, is a veteran leader in India’s financial sector with over 45 years of experience. Her career highlights include her role as chairman South & South East Asia at JPMorgan, where she shaped strategy for India and ASEAN countries and maintained pivotal regulatory relationships. Prior to that, at ICICI Bank Ltd, she was instrumental in the Group’s capital raising exercise as well as the merger of ICICI Ltd with ICICI Bank in 2002. She also serves as an independent non-executive director on the boards of HSBC Holdings, Hindustan Unilever Limited, and Philip Morris International Inc., along with being an ex-board member of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd.
Meesho’s other board member is Rohit Bhagat, who is non-executive chairman of the board at PhonePe, an independent director at AssetMark, and the lead independent trustee of the Franklin Templeton ETF Trust. His previous board and advisory roles span companies like Axis Bank, Flipkart, and FreeCharge. His leadership and operating responsibilities have included chairman (Asia Pacific) at BlackRock, global COO at Barclays Global Investors, and senior partner at The Boston Consulting Group.
Meesho has also appointed Surojit Chatterjee as a board member. He is the founder and chief executive officer of Ema, a generative AI company based in San Francisco. In 2021, he guided Coinbase through a successful IPO as its chief product officer. Previously at Google, Chatterjee scaled Google Mobile Ads and Google Shopping into multi-billion-dollar businesses as the vice president and head of product.
Meesho’s board also includes co-founders Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, Ashutosh Sharma, head of investments and mergers and acquisitions at Prosus Ventures, Mohit Bhatnagar, managing director at Peak XV Partners, Mukul Arora, co-managing partner at Elevation Capital, and Sarthak Misra, partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers.
Last year, Meesho said that it had turned profitable. Its loss narrowed 48.42 per cent from Rs 3,251 crore in FY22 to Rs 1,675 crore in FY23. Its topline growth was further augmented by operating leverage and an increased focus on efficiencies across a number of cost items, including customer acquisition cost, server and infrastructure cost.
Revenue from operations for FY23 grew by 77 per cent over the previous year to Rs 5,735 crore. This growth was achieved because of the company’s continued leadership position as the most downloaded shopping app in India in 2022 and 2023.
The company also revealed the audited first-half (H1) FY24 performance. Here, the consolidated revenues from operations were Rs 3,521 crore (up 37 per cent year-on-year). The losses for the period were Rs 141 crore, lower by 90 per cent year-on-year, while turning profitable in Q2 FY24.
First Published: Aug 02 2024 | 4:28 PM IST