Meesho announces $5.5 mn ESOP liquidity program for current, ex-employees

Social commerce platform Meesho has announced a $5.5 million ESOP liquidity program for all its eligible current and former employees with vested stocks. This is the firm’s second such liquidity program in less than one year.  These ESOPs are aimed at giving employees high ownership while also providing them with opportunities for wealth creation, according to Meesho founder and CEO Vidit Aatrey.

“We continue to see meteoric progress not only as a business but also in our efforts to democratise internet commerce for everyone. Our employees have been at the forefront of driving this momentum, and we want to give them ample opportunities to celebrate and grow with us. As we hire across the board and scale our tech and product talent by 2.5x, ESOPs will give employees high ownership, while providing more opportunities for wealth creation,” Aatrey said.

Last month, Meesho raised $570 million in a series F funding round led by Fidelity Management and Research Company and B Capital Group, as per an official statement. This funding led to a rise in Meesho’s valuation by around 2 times to $4.9 billion. Existing investors including Prosus Ventures, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Facebook participated in this round. New investors who partook in this round were Footpath Ventures and Trifecta Capital among others.

The statement further reads that Meesho has seen 2.8x growth in monthly transacting users and a 2.5x rise in monthly orders over the last six months. The social commerce firm now aims to reach 100 million transacting users and increase its roster to over 50 million products by December 2022.

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