Meesho’s mission was to bring Indian consumers and businesses online, especially people outside major technology hubs. Aatrey says 250 million unique consumers bought through Meesho in the prior 12 months, with close to a million sellers. He and co-founder Sanjeev Barnwal started the company after seeing that their families in smaller towns were not shopping online.
How Meesho Became India’s Biggest Shopping App
Speaker
Vidit Aatrey, co-founder and CEO of Meesho, discusses the company’s evolution and its plans for AI with a Y Combinator host at a 2026 YC event.
The founders’ first product, Fashion Nearby, helped local shops sell to nearby customers. They shut it down after three months when shoppers found it offered less selection than a mall and less convenience than online shopping. By observing shop owners, they later found that many were already selling through WhatsApp groups, which led them to build Meesho as a toolkit for those sellers.
Many small businesses would not pay for software, so the founders studied which users relied on Meesho most. They found online-native resellers, many of them homemakers, who needed access to suppliers for their zero-upfront-cost businesses. Meesho Supply connected resellers to products, and Aatrey says it doubled monthly for 10 months without marketing spend.
Meesho’s WhatsApp model suited a time when mobile data was expensive; at its peak in 2020, the company says 10 million sellers used it to reach around 100 million people. As data costs fell and more consumers became comfortable shopping online, the founders decided to launch a direct shopping app, despite the risk of alienating resellers. Launched on July 5, 2021, the app reached 100 million monthly active users within five months, according to Aatrey.
Aatrey sees AI as another major shift for e-commerce, particularly in making shopping easier for people who struggle with text, buttons, ratings, or online payments. Meesho is testing a voice agent called Wani, with a vision of shopping through speech and images without needing to read or type. He says the company aims to expand beyond its 250 million annual buyers toward serving a billion people.
Takeaways
- Talk to consumers as well as sellers; one side of a marketplace can give an incomplete picture.
- Observe how customers already solve a problem before building a product for them.
- Look for users who rely on a product regularly; their unmet needs can point to a stronger business.
- When customer behavior changes, assess the long-term opportunity and commit to a pivot when the evidence supports it.
- Design for the barriers customers actually face, including language, data costs, and unfamiliar interfaces.
Mentioned in this talk
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What was claimed 18
- featureMeesho: Consumer shopping app across categories
“people can come and buy across lots of categories”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- metricMeesho: Close to one million sellers
“we had close to a million sellers”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- metricMeesho: About 250 million unique consumers bought from Meesho in the last 12 months
“In the last 12 months, about 250 million consumers bought from us”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featureMeesho: E-commerce platform focused on value for money across categories and built for mass India
“Today, Meesho is an e-commerce platform”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- feature
Y Combinator: Meesho was part of the Summer 2016 batch“We were part of the Summer 2016 batch.”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- metricMeesho: 250 million consumers growing at over 30% year on year
“This 250 million is still growing at 30% plus year on year.”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- role at
“you and your co-founder”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- previously at
“Sanjeev used to work with Sony in Tokyo”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- builtMeesho built Fashion Nearby
“So we called our first version Fashion Nearby.”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featureMeesho: Meesho Supply gave resellers access to supply so they could start selling
“With Meesho Supply, users could get access to supply from us and start selling.”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- launchedMeesho launched Meesho Supply
“Then we built a new app called Meesho Supply.”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- usesResellers used WhatsApp groups to sell products
“run a WhatsApp group, and sell products to consumers.”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- metricMeesho: At its peak, 10 million WhatsApp groups in India were used to buy products from Meesho
“At its peak in 2020, we had 10 million WhatsApp groups in India”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- metricMeesho: Reached number one in the Shopping section in India on July 7, 2021Reached number one in the Shopping section in India on July 7, 2021
“on July 7, 2021, we went number one in the shopping section”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- metricMeesho: Reached 100 million monthly active users five months after launch
“Five months later, we had 100 million MAU.”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- usesExploring AI for shopping, logistics, and more accessible consumer experiences
“I believe AI is going to change how we shop online, e-commerce, logistics—everything.”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- launchedVoice agent
“we recently launched a new voice agent called Wani”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featureWani: Voice-led shopping experience intended to reduce reading, typing, and button-clicking
“a consumer never has to read anything in the app, type anything in the app, or click a button”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
