Social commerce platform Meesho has touched nine million women micro entrepreneurs across 5,000 towns. The founders are also creating wealth for employees and impacting the broader ecosystem
(From left) Meesho co-founders Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal have also invested in over 30 startups in India and Southeast Asia
Image: Selvaprakash Lakshmanan for Forbes India
About a year ago, Vidit Aatrey recalls a woman telling him: “Itne bure din kaise aa gaye ki ghar ki bahu ko kaam karna pade? (How did our days turn so bad that the bride of the house has to earn?)” The lady was alluding to the opposition at her home to her desire to use the Meesho app and make money by selling dresses and household items.
Aatrey was comparing the growth of Meesho in South India with states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, and the North, where the co-founders hail from. Women in the South had a little more freedom and Meesho’s early uptake was stronger in the region.
Aatrey and friend Sanjeev Barnwal founded the social commerce venture towards the end of 2015. As with most startups, there were course corrections and pivots, but by the time the Covid pandemic hit, Meesho had millions of women using it. In 2021, the number of women micro entrepreneurs surged 2.5x to cross nine million, the company said in a press release on December 2. And Meesho is beginning to make a dent even in the conservative small-town and village communities in the country.
Meesho itself is changing, with the founders ready to go after a much bigger vision—one that has come a long way from the early years of WhatsApp group-based purchases. “We are building the single shopping destination for the next billion consumers in India,” Aatrey says.