The Startup That Got Listed But Forgot to Start Making Money

251 Million Users, Zero Profits, and Someone Valued This at ₹68,000 Crore

Let’s start with the most important context: Meesho has existed since 2015. That is a full decade of operating one of India’s largest consumer technology platforms. In those ten years, not once — not a single fiscal year — has the company reported a profit. This isn’t a hot take. This is in their own filings. They even have a section in their company description titled “Ongoing Losses.” Chapeau for the transparency, genuinely.

And yet, here we are. December 2025, freshly listed on Indian exchanges after raising ₹4,250 crore through an IPO. Market cap: ₹68,013 crore. For reference, that’s larger than many profitable, dividend-paying Indian industrial companies that have operated for 50+ years. The market is essentially betting that Meesho’s 251 million annual transacting users will someday generate the kind of profits that justify this number. The key word being “someday.”

The Q3 FY26 result — covering the festive quarter ended December 31, 2025 — shows both why the bull case is compelling and why the bear case keeps you up at night. Revenue at ₹3,518 crore grew 31% YoY. That’s real, organic, impressive growth. The losses, however, are also growing — operating loss at ₹539 crore was the worst in recent memory, driven by what management calls a “temporary” logistics capacity cost spike that was, in their words, “more expensive” due to a partner exiting mid-year.

Believe the management commentary? Losses normalise in the next two quarters, reaching Q1 FY26 levels. Don’t believe it? You’re holding a company that just listed, is burning ₹500 crore a quarter, and has its two founders holding just 16.76% combined. Either way, this is the most entertaining earnings story in the Indian IPO class of 2025.

A Marketplace for Bharat. At Prices Your Local Chaiwala Would Approve Of.

Meesho is a multi-sided e-commerce marketplace. The pitch is simple: connect small sellers (many of whom don’t even have GST registrations — yes, Meesho now serves non-GST sellers too) with price-sensitive Indian consumers who find Amazon and Flipkart slightly too premium, slightly too metro-centric, and slightly too intimidating.

They operate under one core philosophy — affordable. Low-cost unbranded products, regional brands, and national brands, all at prices that make impulse buying dangerously easy. In FY25, 1.83 billion orders were placed on the platform. That’s approximately 5 million orders a day. No warehouse, no inventory risk — it’s a pure marketplace model where the seller owns the stock and Meesho owns the relationship, the logistics (partially, via Valmo), and the data.

The Valmo logistics brand deserves a special mention. Meesho insourced last-mile delivery to build control over customer experience, and Valmo now handles 64.5% of shipped orders (up from a mere 1.8% in FY23). The remaining ~35% goes through 3PL partners. This transition has been messy — in Q3 FY26, a major logistics partner “stopped being in business” mid-year (their words, not ours), forcing Meesho to scramble and sign expensive short-term contracts. Hence the loss spike. Management says this normalises by end of Q4 FY26.

Q3 FY26: Revenue Is Growing. Everything Else Is Also Growing — Just in the Wrong Direction.