Meesho IPO is Another Overhyped Scam in the Making, Just Like Lenskart and Physics Wallah

The Indian IPO frenzy is approaching a fever in late 2025 and e-commerce dominated Meesho is poised to roll out its blockbuster product on December 3. The company is worth a staggering 5.6 billion dollars and hopes to raise more than 600 million in fresh shares and a small offer-for-sale by its early investors. On the one hand, it sounds like a golden ticket, a social commerce platform, which places small sellers in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities and ensures growing its revenues 23% to Rs 9,390 crore in FY25. However, scratch a bit deeper and the tale of Meesho is full of the same smoke and mirrors that wrecked the retail investor in the recent IPOs such as Lenskart and Physics Wallah. It is not innovation; it is a standard exit VC/founder scam, which leaves the common buyers with the bag.
The basic idea behind Meesho was this, low prices through WhatsApp and Instagram, and it would reach low-end buyers, neglected by Amazon and Flipkart. Orders taken every day may be surpassing the giants, but the figures are uglier. One-time hits such as business restructurings, and taxes increased the losses to Rs 3,942 crore in FY25, compared to the past years. Although the net loss decreased a bit in H1 FY26 to Rs 700 crore, the company acknowledges an excessive expenditure on cloud infra and machine learning – code to burn cash in the pursuit of scale that can never break even. It is followed by the Cash-on-Delivery (COD) trap: 75% of orders continue to be based on it which causes remarkably high rates of returns and fraud. Sellers lament about counterfeit orders, false returns consuming profits, and non-existent responsibility. A single seller went to the Internet to rave that Meesho loots sellers with falsified charges – and now they will loot shareholders. Added to that is an ugly Rs 127 crore tussle with AWS on unpaid bills and service flops, and you have a company that is full of operational shambles, not fit to be put on stage.
It is similar to the catastrophes of Lenskart and Physics Wallah, which were 2025 IPOs that were marketed as the next big thing and turned out to be valuation bubbles. The eyewear retailer Lenskart launched at a mindboggling 235x – 10x overvalued by any reasonable metric – with a promise of the magic of the omnichannel and a flat listing and a rapid listing. Those who jumped on the frenzy lost 5-10 percent of their stock value after the IPOs, as the growth rate decelerated in the face of Cheap Chinese imports and incessant discounts that disguised high margins. The edtech poster child, Physics Wallah, posted profitability in FY25, but a shadowy side: Employee lawsuits due to unpaid salary, enforced 12-hour shifts, and sketchy settlements. Its IPO was priced 33% above value, but it stumbled, with subscribers leaving and free YouTube tutors stinging, taking a toll. Both were VC cash-grabs SoftBank and Tiger Global sold at highs, with retailers having bought into valueless no-profits at 288x and 710x P/E multiple. According to one of the traders, these are merely business ventures to sell specs and lessons, not to change the world, but at Nvidia prices.
Meesho is being branded as a warner before listing in social media as a “fraud central. Customers have horror tales of goods not delivered, automatic returns, and customer service that haunts you. Meesho IPO has been a scam, they feed on the money of people with their mouths open like the mouths of their mouths are open, and they set SEBI to investigate it, one user ranted. Resellers go along with the outburst: bogus orders, doctored returns and call centers that give rise to additional fraud. It is the playbook of hyping growth numbers such as GMV and covering the COD risks, RTO nightmares, and customer acquisition costs (compared to lifetime value) that are multiple times more. Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal who are the founders may get 55,000x windfalls in case it does pop, however in your case? A ticket to 50% downgrades after the listing, as karma of IPOs that don’t get into your funds.
The decision is simple enough: avoid the IPO of Meesho. It is priced at unicorns rather than reality at rs 105-111 per share, it is a loss-making machine in a cut-throat market, with disputes and fraud claims mounting. VCs such as Softbank are holding back at the moment but that is only to squeeze the exit more. The retail investors were scalded on the eyewear empire of Lenskart and the classroom fantasy of Physics Wallah; never queue up to the Meesho illusion of a shopping cart. Store your money in sure things – this bubble is about to pop, and the cleaning will not be a pleasant one.