Meesho strengthens board with appointment of four independent directors

Meesho's new board members are expected to play a key role in advancing its strategic goals

E-commerce firm Meesho has strengthened its board with the appointment of four independent directors, including a former CII president and a JPMorgan veteran, the firm said on Friday, as it expressed confidence that the new members would help the firm democratise internet commerce for everyone.

The SoftBank-backed firm said that the new members, Kalpana Morparia, Hari S Bhartia, Surojit Chatterjee and Rohit Bhagat, would support Meesho’s commitment to fostering a culture of transparency and strong corporate governance.

“Our ability to adapt to our users’ needs and embrace bold strategies has led to remarkable growth, including our recent milestone of becoming the first horizontal e-commerce platform in India to achieve profitability. As we embark on the next phase of growth, we are confident that their (board) collective wisdom and diverse perspectives will play a pivotal role in steering the company towards new milestones,” said Vidit Aatrey, founder and chief executive officer at Meesho.

One of the new board members, Hari S Bhartia, is a former President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). He is the founder and co-chairman of Jubilant Bhartia Group, which has four flagship companies listed on Indian stock exchanges, with a combined market cap of approximately $7.65 billion including Jubilant Pharmova Limited.

Another member Kalpana Morparia is a veteran leader in India’s financial sector with over 45 years of experience. Her career highlights include her role as Chairman South & South East Asia at JPMorgan, where she shaped strategy for India and ASEAN countries and maintained pivotal regulatory relationships.

Prior to that at ICICI Bank Ltd, she was instrumental in the Group’s capital raising exercise as well as the merger of ICICI Ltd with ICICI Bank in 2002. She also serves as an independent non-executive director on the boards of HSBC Holdings, Hindustan Unilever Limited, and Philip Morris International Inc., along with being an ex-board member of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. 

Meesho’s other new board member is Rohit Bhagat, who is non-executive Chairman of the Board at PhonePe, an Independent Director at AssetMark and the Lead Independent Trustee of the Franklin Templeton ETF Trust. His previous board and advisory roles span companies like Axis Bank, Flipkart, and FreeCharge. His leadership and operating responsibilities have included Chairman (Asia Pacific) at BlackRock, Global COO at Barclays Global Investors, and Senior Partner at The Boston Consulting Group. 

Meesho has also appointed Surojit Chatterjee as the board member. He is the founder and CEO of Ema, a generative AI company based out of San Francisco. In 2021, he guided Coinbase through a successful IPO as its Chief Product Officer. Previously at Google, Chatterjee scaled Google Mobile Ads and Google Shopping into multi-billion-dollar businesses as the VP and Head of Product.

Expertise of these new members is also expected to help the firm in its efforts towards a successful initial public offering (IPO) which is more than a year away, according to the sources.

The Bengaluru-based firm has raised a total of $1.36 billion since its inception in 2015.

Meesho competes with players such as Amazon, Flipkart and Reliance’s JioMart to tap India’s e-tailing sector, which is poised to experience a fivefold growth, surging from $59 billion in 2022 to an estimated $300 billion by 2030.

Last year, Meesho said that its loss narrowed 48.42 per cent from Rs 3,251 crore in FY22 to Rs 1,675 crore in FY23.

Revenue from operations for FY 2022-23 grew by 77 per cent over the previous year.