Meesho’s Q1 Show, Skyroot’s New Era & More

Meesho’s Steady Q1 March

Meesho inched closer to profitability in Q1. Buoyed by strong revenue growth, improving unit economics, higher platform monetisation and a tighter leash on costs, the ecommerce major managed to narrow its losses during the quarter.

Here is quick looks at Meesho’s Q1 FY27 numbers:

• Operating revenue grew 48% YoY to ₹3,707 Cr
• Consolidated net loss shrank 54% YoY to ₹132.8 Cr
• Total expenses zoomed sharply by nearly 43% YoY to ₹3,959 Cr

The Marketplace Engine: As usual, Meesho’s marketplace arm continued to do the heavy lifting on the back of healthy NMV, order growth, growing transacting users and expanding contribution margin. The core platform continued to benefit from better delivery conversion, lower cancellations and returns, better monetisation and optimised logistics. This suggests that Meesho’s value-focused approach is starting to generate more profit per Rupee of goods sold.

Other Bets: Meesho’s new initiatives are fast becoming a new growth engine. Branded commerce under Meesho Mall continued to scale up in Q1, while content-led commerce drove triple-digit NMV growth. Although these emerging bets widened adjusted EBITDA losses to ₹39 Cr, they significantly expanded the platform’s higher-margin monetisation potential.

Meanwhile, Meesho’s GenAI push doubled engineering productivity by shifting coding workflows to automated agents, while AI tools simplified onboarding for sellers. 

The Grocery Push: Beyond the numbers, the listed marketplace’s board also cleared an additional ₹75 Cr investment into its grocery arm, signalling that value-focused grocery remains a strategic priority despite fierce competition. Simultaneously, the board also proposed amendments to its articles of association, formalising long-term board nomination thresholds for cofounders and other major institutional investors. 

As the ecommerce major prepares for the upcoming festive sale season, will expanding margins and AI-driven efficiency keep it on the path to profitability? While that is a question for another day, for now, here is how Meesho fared on the financial front in Q1…

From The Editor’s Desk

Skyroot’s Commercial Era Begins

• Last week, the spacetech unicorn became the first Indian private company to send its rocket into space. Its Vikram-1 rocket completed every major flight milestone, validating its propulsion, telemetry, avionics and navigation systems under real flight conditions.
• With this, it is now preparing for commercial launches and developing the next generation of rockets. What gives the startup an edge in the space is its local manufacturing, dedicated mission flexibility and competitive pricing.
• To carve a niche, the unicorn is also working on reusable launch systems. But, Skyroot’s next challenge will lie in executing reliable commercial launches, scaling production and winning global customers.

Inside VAHDAM’s India Pivot

• Most Indian consumer brands win at home before they dare to dream global. VAHDAM went the other way. It first spent a decade proving that Indian teas can compete on global shelves at Walmart and Costco, and is now turning its sights back to home turf.
• In the past ten years, the startup has stitched together a farm-to-cup supply chain, sourcing teas and botanicals from thousands of farmers and shipping products directly to users across 180+ countries.
• The tea brand is now eyeing ₹500 Cr in top line in FY27 and ₹1,000 Cr by FY29. As part of this, VAHDAM is focusing its energies on India: building local price points, everyday wellness products for sleep and immunity, and a digital-first playbook.

Klassroom Prepares For IPO Test

• The edtech startup is all set to list on the bourses next week. The SME IPO will open for subscription on July 31 and close on August 4. It has set a price band of ₹151 to ₹159 for the issue, seeking a valuation of ₹148.1 Cr.
• Klassroom’s public issue comprises a fresh issue of up to 19.89 Lakh shares and an offer for sale of up to 4.66 Lakh shares. At the upper end of the price band, the edtech platform is looking to raise ₹39 Cr through the IPO.
• Founded in 2016, Klassroom operates a hybrid learning platform. Besides operating an OTT platform, it runs 30 partner centres in Mumbai and claims to have over 2 Lakh paid users. The startup posted a top line of ₹23 Cr in FY26 against a profit of ₹7.6 Cr.

BUSINESSNEXT Bags $40 Mn

• The AI-powered enterprise SaaS company has raised around ₹386 Cr in its Series C round from ServiceNow Ventures at a valuation of $700 Mn. As part of the deal, the US-based SaaS giant has acquired a 5% stake in the Delhi NCR-based platform. 
• Founded in 2001, BUSINESSNEXT offers AI-powered software tools to banks and insurers to manage customer relationships, lending, service operations and workflows. It claims to serve 120+ financial institutions, reaching over 1 Bn end customers globally. 
• As a growing number of financial institutions look to adopt AI tools, more and more homegrown SaaS startups are doubling down on AI-led capabilities to capture a piece of the $71 Indian enterprise AI opportunity by 2030.

Swiggy To Cap Foreign Ownership

• With an eye on becoming an Indian owned and controlled company (IOCC), the foodtech giant’s board has approved a proposal to cap its aggregate foreign ownership at 49.5%. If approved by shareholders, Swiggy would qualify as an IOCC under FEMA rules.
• As part of this, the listed major plans to reattempt amending its articles of association. Separately, the startup’s board also approved a proposal to reclassify the company’s authorised preference share capital into authorised equity share capital.
• The IOCC status will pave the way for Instamart to pivot to an inventory-led model. Under this structure, the quick commerce arm would be able to directly procure products from brands, which could improve margins and curb cash burn.

Inc42 Markets

Inc42 Startup Spotlight

How Astrobase Is Building The Backbone For Space Access

India wants its own space station in orbit by 2035. Yet, the nation is held back by a major constraint: not enough heavy rockets are built fast enough. Astrobase is betting that a new kind of engine, and a new way of building it, can help change that trajectory.

Plugging The Gap: Founded in 2024, Astobase is building a launch vehicle aimed at both domestic and international customers, with propulsion designed for high thrust, reusability and cleaner combustion. It already operates a 46,000 sq ft factory in Bengaluru to build its new-age rockets.

The 3D Edge: The startup is building a full-flow staged combustion (FFSC) engine using liquid oxygen and liquid natural gas or methane. This advanced architecture runs both on fuel and oxidiser through separate pre-burners for efficiency and reuse. Astrobase is pairing this with large-scale additive manufacturing so engines can be printed, assembled and iterated faster, supporting higher production volumes. 

Gearing Up For Launch: After cold-flow tests in 2025, the startup has already run a full-scale combustion test of its FFSC engine, and recently secured IN-SPACe funding support to advance its 80-tonne indigenous rocket engine. As the country races to build its own station, can Astrobase become the workhorse that lifts India’s space ambitions off the ground?

Infographic Of The Day

Payments brought the largest share of revenue for Paytm in Q1 FY27, but financial services, merchant solutions and marketing are quietly becoming meaningful growth engines. Here is how the fintech major made money during the quarter…

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