Meesho’s growth story is still in its early stages: Vidit Aatrey

In an environment where India’s digital landscape is expanding at breakneck speed, Meesho’s leadership continues to emphasise a steady, long-term vision that focuses on scale, inclusivity, and the power of platform economics. During a recent interaction with ET Now, the company’s CMD and CEO Vidit Aatrey outlined a mission that has remained consistent over the past decade and continues to guide Meesho’s next phase of growth.

Aatrey’s message was clear: Meesho sees its role as a catalyst for bringing millions of businesses and hundreds of millions of consumers into the fold of internet commerce. As he put it, “So, the mission of the company and the vision of the company is very simple, which is how do we really democratize internet commerce for a billion consumers, millions of small businesses, who are manufacturers, distributors, traders, every single logistics company in India to come and participate.”

Over the last ten years, Meesho has taken deliberate steps towards this goal. The company has scaled to 230 million annual transacting consumers, 700,000 sellers, and built a logistics network with 15,000+ partners through Valmo. Yet Aatrey believes this is only the beginning. He pointed out that with over 50 million businesses and 1.5 billion potential consumers in India, the runway ahead remains massive. “We have still not even scratched the surface of this total opportunity… there is a lot of room for us to keep innovating on and achieve this particular vision,” he said.

While Meesho’s growing presence in tier-II and tier-III cities has been widely noted, Aatrey stressed that the company’s strategy is fundamentally powered by platform dynamics. Highlighting the economic advantage of scale, he explained, “We have a platform business and the beautiful thing about platforms is that platforms have strong flywheel effects… once you reach critical mass… you have increasing returns to scale.”

This network effect has created a self-reinforcing cycle for Meesho, enabling both user and seller acquisition to accelerate organically. “A lot of consumers who join us… joined us because we have the largest base of sellers… and vice versa. Which other platform will offer you 23 crore customers to serve?”

Even as the company expands, Aatrey underscored that Meesho continues to prioritise long-term growth over short-term profit maximisation. Investments remain focused on user acquisition and product experience across the ecosystem. As he noted, “Instead of maximizing profitability we have been maximizing hey, can we go out and acquire more users much quickly if we have great returns and payback on that investment amount.”

The strategy appears to be delivering. Meesho’s NMV grew 44% year-on-year, while orders surged 53% year-on-year, signalling robust demand at scale. According to Aatrey, the growth momentum is likely to continue as the platform deepens its capabilities and strengthens its technology and logistics foundations. “We basically believe that this will keep growing the ecosystem much faster even in the future.”With its relentless push to democratise digital commerce, Meesho is positioning itself at the intersection of India’s consumption boom and its rapidly formalising small-business economy. The company’s straight-line vision, even amid industry ups and downs, reflects a clear belief: the real opportunity is still ahead.