The 32X Frenzy: Inside Meesho's Blockbuster Anchor Book

If anyone had doubts about the appetite for Indian consumer tech, this weekend silenced them. Meesho, the Bengaluru-based "Amazon for Bharat," has closed its anchor book with overwhelming demand ahead of its public listing.

The company raised ₹2,439 Crore from anchor investors, but the real story is the demand: institutional investors placed bids worth over ₹80,000 Crore—oversubscribing the anchor portion by nearly 32 times. This level of frenzy hasn't been seen since the Zomato IPO era.

Who Bought In?

The list of anchor investors reads like a who's who of global finance. BlackRock, Fidelity, GIC (Singapore), and Tiger Global led the charge from the international front. On the domestic side, SBI Mutual Fund took a massive chunk (nearly 25% of the anchor book), causing a minor stir among other investors who wanted a larger slice of the pie.

"At a valuation of $5.7B (₹50,000 Cr), Meesho is trading at roughly 5.5x Price-to-Sales. Compared to Zomato's 10x, investors see deep value in India's only pure-play value e-commerce platform."
— Market Analyst Note

The "Zero-Commission" Gamble Pays Off

Founded by IIT-Delhi alumni Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, Meesho disrupted the market with a zero-commission model for sellers. Critics said it was unsustainable. However, the anchor book demand validates their pivot to ad-monetization and logistics revenue (Valmo).

With 19.9 Crore annual transacting users (mostly from Tier-2+ cities), Meesho has built a moat where Amazon and Flipkart struggle to operate profitably: the unbranded mass market.

FounderStory Takeaway

The sheer scale of the anchor book oversubscription suggests that the "tech winter" for IPOs is officially over. Institutional investors are hungry for growth, but specifically for capital-efficient growth. Meesho, which has turned free-cash-flow positive in FY25, fits that narrative perfectly.