India-based e-commerce startup Meesho, previously headquartered in the United States, is set to pay a hefty $288 million in taxes to redomicile from Delaware to India ahead of its upcoming initial public offering (IPO). The move positions the Bengaluru-based firm to list on Indian stock exchanges around Diwali 2025, with an expected valuation of $10 billion.
Meesho, a Bengaluru-based e-commerce platform focused on small businesses and individual entrepreneurs, will pay $288 million (₹2,461 crore) in taxes to the United States as it completes its redomiciling process from Delaware, USA, to India. This strategic shift is a key step in the company’s plan to list in Indian stock markets by Diwali 2025.
The tax payment, one of the largest by an Indian startup in recent history, follows the footsteps of other high-profile companies such as PhonePe, which paid $1 billion to shift from Singapore to India, and Groww and Razorpay, which paid $160 million and $150 million, respectively.
Founded in 2015, Meesho began as a social commerce platform and has evolved into one of India’s leading online marketplaces catering to value-conscious consumers and small-scale sellers. The company was initially incorporated in the US to attract global venture capital funding, a common practice among Indian startups backed by accelerators like Y Combinator.
According to sources cited by Moneycontrol, Meesho had planned the redomiciling tax cost as early as April 2024, with a total of $550–600 million raised through a mix of primary and secondary funding rounds. Major investors such as Tiger Global and SoftBank participated, with roughly half of the raised capital allocated to cover the U.S. tax liability.
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) recently approved Meesho’s redomiciling application, paving the way for its merger with the Indian entity and subsequent filing of a Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in the coming weeks.
Once the merger is complete, Meesho will be fully domiciled in India, enabling it to meet regulatory requirements for domestic listing. The company aims to raise up to $1 billion via its IPO, targeting a market valuation of $10 billion, according to Moneycontrol.
