Facebook India has invested in Bengaluru-based social commerce startup Meesho. While the amount has not been disclosed by the company, it is a minor stake that Facebook has picked up. This is Facebook’s second investment in an Indian startup after it acquired Little Eye Labs back in 2014.
Announcing the development on its webpage, Meesho has said that the investment will help further its efforts to enable independent entrepreneurs to build businesses and grow their customer base via social channels.
Founded in Bangalore in 2015 by Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, Meesho provides an online platform, as well as sourcing, logistics and payments tools, to help ‘social sellers’ launch, build and promote online businesses using WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media channels.
A typical Meesho social seller, which includes small retailers, housewives, students and even retirees, earns between Rs 20,000-25,000 per month by selling products across fashion, lifestyle and many other categories. Meesho is also a Y Combinator alumnus, and has a network of more than 2 million resellers who largely deal with apparels, home appliances, and electronics items.
“It has been an amazing journey for us and we cannot wait to do more, as we work towards our goal of building a bigger community and enabling millions of entrepreneurs to be successful. Over the last 4 years we've grown from our humble beginnings, to a community of more than 15,000 suppliers and 2,000,000 resellers throughout India. We share a common goal with Facebook - to enable the community and help small businesses grow. We'd like to thank our entrepreneur community, investors, and everyone who has had faith in us from the beginning - we can't wait to keep building,” Meesho said.
Through this investment, Facebook wants to enable and grow a business model that can result in rapid job creation, as well as the rise of a female entrepreneurial class in India, given that most of the sellers on Meesho are homemakers.