Bengaluru-based ecommerce marketplace Meesho has received shareholder approval to launch its initial public offering (IPO), aiming to raise Rs 4,250 crore (about $500 million) in fresh capital, according to filings with the Registrar of Companies. The approval came after an extraordinary general meeting of the company. Meesho, which completed its domicile shift from the US to India last week, will file its draft IPO prospectus under Sebi鈥檚 confidential route, the documents show. Separately, Meesho鈥檚 shareholders have also approved the plan to designate founder Vidit Aatrey as the chairman, managing director and CEO of the company.鈥淭he proposed offering will include a fresh issue of equity shares aggregating up to Rs 4,250 crore and an offer for sale of equity shares by certain existing shareholders of the company,鈥 the filing said.This is the final step before the company makes its filings with the markets regulator.Investors Elevation Capital, Peak XV Partners and Prosus are among the largest institutional shareholders in Meesho owning between 13-15% stake each. Japanese investor SoftBank owns close to 10% stake in the etailer focussed on value retailing at lower price points.Other investors in the company include the likes of WestBridge Capital and Fidelity.Meesho鈥檚 last funding was a $550-million round, which was largely in secondary transactions, through which it was valued at around $3.9 billion 鈥 a slight discount to its peak valuation of $5 billion. This round saw new investors such as Tiger Global, Think Investments and Mars Growth Capital participating in addition to existing backers such as Peak XV Partners and WestBridge Capital.Regulatory filings also showed that Meesho has expanded its 2024 employee stock option plan (Esop) by adding 1.1 million options, bringing the total pool to 7.5 million stock options.A presentation by its investor Prosus this week showed that in FY25, Meesho clocked over 1.8 billion orders, a 37% year-on-year growth from 1.3 billion orders in fiscal 2024.With this IPO, Meesho could emerge as the first horizontal ecommerce company to list on the bourses in India. Its rival firm, Walmart-owned Flipkart, is also in the process of shifting its domicile from Singapore to India, ahead of a planned public issue next year.A slew of internet companies and new-age brands are planning to go public. This includes the likes of Groww, Pine Labs, PhysicsWallah, Urban Company, Shiprocket, Boat, Wakefit and Capillary Technologies have filed their papers with Sebi this year. Besides Meesho, omnichannel eyewear retailer Lenskart and logistics firm Shadowfax are also planning to file soon.