Facebook Acquires Stake In Indian E-Commerce Start-Up Meesho

Meesho – an Indian digital platform has been acquired an amount of stake by Facebook. The head of Facebook in India unveiled the deal on Thursday, with one of the main reasons is to widen its popularity in the massive consumer market in India.

The Indian start-up Meesho is now focusing on e-commerce service. Through its digital platform and social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp, re-sellers can approach a number of potential customers and trade everything from mobile phones and jewelry. The Facebook India’s VP and managing director - Ajit Mohan, told Reuters that it already has about millions of entrepreneurs who are aiming at cities and smaller towns in the country.

New Delhi has previously said that the country will spread consultations with internet firms before finalizing rules to regulate content on social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and messaging platform WhatsApp. Those companies have come under intense scrutiny in the country as the federal government has been preparing to tighten more rules on them. Social media platforms will be demanded to monitor their content on the Internet second by second.

Mohan said this investment will support Meesho to maximize its impact on the current exploding growth of the country by creating jobs through entrepreneurship. However, it’s unclear about the value of the investment that Facebook financed in Meesho as well as the size of the stake it is acquiring.

Meesho was founded in 2015 by two engineering graduates. Since then, the company has raised over $65 million in funding from several equity firms like DST Partners and Shunwei Capital.