[NEWS] Facebook backs social commerce startup Meesho in first India investment – Loganspace

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[NEWS] Facebook backs social commerce startup Meesho in first India investment – Loganspace


As Fb explores ways to generate earnings from WhatsApp, the firm is now turning to a startup that already has a lead. The social juggernaut stated this day it has invested in social-commerce startupMeeshoin what’s the principle time the firm takes equity in an Indian startup.

Neither Fb nor Meesho, which sooner than this announcement had raised about $65 million from a series of investors including DST Partners, RPS Ventures and Shunwei Capital, shared monetary terms of the deal. A source aware of the topic told TechCrunch the scale of the capital modified into “very most fundamental.”

Meesho, aY Combinator alumnus, is a web market that connects sellers with customers on social media platforms equivalent to WhatsApp. The four-Twelve months-frail startup claims to bear a community of extra than 2 million resellers who largely contend with apparels and electronics objects.

These resellers are mostly homemakers, most of whom bear bought a smartphone for the principle time in most modern years. 80% of Meesho’s user defective is female, startup’s co-founder and CEO Vidit Aatrey told TechCrunch.

Meesho additionally has most of its customers in smaller cities and towns, popularly dubbed as India 2, the set most customers are mute no longer online. These are two things that attracted Fb to Meesho, Ajit Mohan, VP and Managing Director of Fb India, told TechCrunch in an interview.

“A platform that is aimed at India 2 and has this kind of wisely-organized user defective of ladies — when most folks online in India are predominantly males — is a noteworthy success,” he stated. According to several estimates, males yarn for extra than 80% of India’s web user defective.

Meesho claims that it is serving to thousands of resellers carry out extra than Rs 25,000 ($360) each month. In an interview with TechCrunch final Twelve months, Aatrey stated the startup, which operates in India at mask,planned to enter international markets.

Whilst WhatsApp is a in actual fact most fundamental play for Meesho, the startup will continue to work with other social media platforms, Fb’s Mohan stated. Final Twelve months, Fb launched its Market, which operates in the same set as Meesho. Mohan stated the firm would no longer check out Meesho as a automotive to enlarge its family of services.

Quite the opposite, Fb is now starting up to exploring funding in other startups which would be constructing odd solutions for the Indian market. “Wherever we predict about there is opportunity beyond the work we produce this day, we’re starting up to exploring further funding affords,” he stated. There is no longer always a particular class that Fb is necessarily having a gaze at, he added.

Whilst Fb has no longer made any push to carry out WhatsApp enlarge beyond a communications provider, customers in India, the provider’s preferrred market, are an increasing form of discovering ways toincorporate Fb’s app into their companies.

Google, Amazon, and Twitter too bear made investments in Indian startups. Whereas Twitter has backed social platform ShareChat, Google has invested in hyperlocal concierge app Dunzo.

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