Meesho announces its largest Esop buyback, worth $25 million

Bengaluru: E-commerce startup Meesho said it has initiated its largest ever employee stock ownership plan (Esop) buyback programme, worth ₹200 crore or $25 million. The buyback will enable wealth-creation opportunities for about 1,700 current and former employees, the company said on Wednesday.

"[The buyback] underscores our commitment to rewarding our teams, and we are pleased that despite the prevailing macroeconomic conditions, we persist in providing opportunities for wealth creation and nurture a culture of growth within the organisation," Meesho's chief human resources officer Ashish Kumar Singh said.

This is Meesho’s fourth Esop buyback, with the company increasing their size each time. It bought back shares worth $1 million in February 2020, $5 million in November 2020, and $5.5 million in October 2021, according to the statement.

In January, Meesho said it had resumed campus hiring and was planning to recruit more young professionals this year. It is hiring for roles across technology and product, analytics, monetisation, business, finance growth, consumer experience, and HR.

Meesho became the first horizontal Indian e-commerce company to turn profitable in July 2023. While it did not disclose the profit it earned in July-September, it said it has remained profitable and cash-flow-positive ever since.

For the first half of FY24, Meesho reported a narrowing of losses to ₹141 crore and a 37% increase in revenue year-on-year to ₹3,521 crore. It attributed this growth to an increase in shopping-app downloads in India in 2022 and 2023, an increase in transaction frequency of existing customers, a bigger category mix, and a focus on improving monetisation through various value-added seller services. 

According to data.ai, Meesho recorded 14.5 crore app downloads in India in 2023.

Founded in 2015, the online shopping platform gives small businesses and individual entrepreneurs access to millions of customers, pan-India logistics, payment services and customer-support capabilities.