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

In an environment where India’s digital landscape is expanding at breakneck speed, Meesho’s leadership continues to emphasize a stable, long-term vision that focuses on scale, inclusivity and the power of platform economics. During a recent interaction with ET Now, the company said 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 to bring millions of businesses and hundreds of millions of consumers into the fold of Internet commerce. As he put it: “So the company’s mission and the company’s vision is very simple: How do we really democratize internet commerce for a billion consumers, millions of small businesses, who are manufacturers, distributors, traders, and every single logistics company in India to participate in it.”

Over the past ten years, Meesho has taken deliberate steps towards this goal. The company has scaled to 230 million consumers transacting annually, 700,000 merchants and has built a logistics network with more than 15,000 partners through Valmo. Yet Aatrey believes this is just the beginning. He pointed out that India, with more than 50 million businesses and 1.5 billion potential consumers, still has a huge runway. “We haven’t even scratched the surface of this total opportunity… there is a lot of room for us to continue to innovate and realize this particular vision,” he said.

While Meesho’s growing presence in tier II and tier III cities has been widely noted, Aatrey emphasized that the company’s strategy is fundamentally driven by platform dynamics. Highlighting the economic benefit of scale, he explained: “We have a platform business and the great thing about platforms is that platforms have strong flywheel effects… once you reach critical mass… you have more and more economies of scale.”

This network effect has created a self-reinforcing cycle for Meesho, allowing it to organically accelerate acquisition of both users and sellers. “Many consumers who are joining us… have joined us because we have the largest number of merchants… and vice versa. What other platform offers you 23 crore customers to serve?”

Even as the company grows, Aatrey underlined that Meesho continues to prioritize long-term growth over short-term profit maximization. Investments remain focused on user acquisition and product experience across the ecosystem. As he noted, “Instead of maximizing profitability, we have maximized. We can acquire more users much faster if we have a big return and a good payback on that investment amount.”

The strategy appears to be paying off. Meesho’s NMV grew 44% year-on-year, while orders increased 53% year-on-year, indicating robust demand at scale. According to Aatrey, growth momentum is likely to continue as the platform deepens its capabilities and strengthens its technological and logistics foundations. “We actually believe this will help the ecosystem grow much faster even in the future.” With its relentless drive to democratize digital commerce, Meesho positions itself at the intersection of India’s consumer boom and the rapidly formalizing small business economy. The company’s straightforward vision, even amid the industry’s ups and downs, reflects a clear belief: the real opportunities still lie ahead.