With their IPO preparation underway, the e-commerce platform Meesho is on its way to pay Rs. 2,461 crores (US $ 288 million) in taxes to the US Government, in order to shift its headquarters from Delaware state in USA to India.
In a bid to clear their taxes, the company had already accumulated US $ 550-600 million, half of which was earmarked for taxes. This funding pool included primary capital from multiple investors including SoftBank, Tiger Global, and more. Adding to that, this tax liability is one of the largest in India – second only to PhonePe’s US $ 1billion in 2023.
This move follows the National Company Law Tribunal’s (NCLT) giving the green signal to the company’s request to shift its headquarters in India without any hurdles, as Meesho had sufficiently explained the concerns related to the scheme, received from RoC/RD & Income Tax Department.
Post the approval, tax payout and complete redomiciling in India, Meesho will aim at raising US $ 1billion through the IPO and as per reports from Moneycontrol, the company will be valued at approximately US $ 10 billion. With the IPO scheduling around the Diwali season, Meesho had earlier set its headquarters in the USA in 2017 as Y Combinator (an American start-up accelerator and Venture Capital firm) wanted the company to domicile outside India for easier funding and scaling.
