In a landmark move to democratize access to advanced artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, Meesho, one of India’s leading social commerce platforms, has open-sourced key components of its proprietary machine learning (ML) platform called BharatMLStack. This strategic release on GitHub marks a significant milestone in empowering Indian startups and developers with scalable, real-time AI tools tailored for the unique challenges of the Indian market.
What is BharatMLStack and Why is it Important?
BharatMLStack is Meesho’s in-house ML platform, developed over the past 2-3 years to power a wide range of real-time machine learning applications across its user and seller-facing systems. The platform has been battle-tested during high-traffic events like Meesho’s March 2025 Mega Blockbuster Sale, handling peak loads with remarkable efficiency.
Key statistics from fiscal year 2025 highlight BharatMLStack’s massive scale:
Processed an average of 1.91 petabytes of data daily
Executed 66.9 trillion feature retrievals
Enabled 3.12 trillion real-time inferences during peak times
The platform includes a production-grade feature store, control plane, orchestration UI, and software development kits (SDKs), all designed to support real-time use cases such as fraud detection, personalized search, ranking systems, and automated product tagging.
Democratizing AI Infrastructure for Indian Startups
By open-sourcing BharatMLStack, Meesho aims to break down barriers for startups and independent ML engineers who often face challenges in building scalable and cost-effective AI infrastructure. Many existing proprietary platforms are either too expensive or lack the flexibility required for India-specific use cases, such as handling transliterated search queries, low-resource devices, and fuzzy product discovery.
Debdoot Mukherjee, Meesho’s Chief Data Scientist, explained the rationale:
“With proprietary platforms, it’s like driving a sports car when all you need is a compact vehicle and you can’t even look under the hood. Open source gives you transparency and control.”
The plug-and-play architecture of BharatMLStack is especially beneficial for early-stage startups without dedicated platform teams, while more mature companies can leverage it to build robust AI systems without reinventing the wheel.
Tailored for India’s Unique Digital Landscape
BharatMLStack is engineered to address uniquely Indian internet behaviors and business needs:
Supports transliterated and multilingual search queries
Optimized for low-bandwidth and low-resource devices
Enables real-time fraud detection and personalized recommendations
Facilitates automated product tagging to improve catalog management
This India-first design philosophy makes the platform highly relevant for startups targeting Bharat’s vast and diverse consumer base.
What Does This Mean for the Indian Startup Ecosystem?
Cost-Effective AI Adoption: Startups can access a high-performance ML platform without the heavy costs of proprietary solutions.
Faster Time-to-Market: Pre-built modules and SDKs reduce complexity and accelerate AI product development.
Community Collaboration: Open sourcing invites feedback, contributions, and innovation from India’s growing AI developer community.
Scalable Infrastructure: BharatMLStack can handle massive data volumes and real-time inference demands, supporting startups as they scale.
Future Roadmap: More Components to Follow
Meesho plans to gradually open-source additional modules, including:
Model serving infrastructure
Model registration systems
Workflow authoring tools
This phased release strategy will further enrich the AI toolkit available to Indian startups and encourage collaborative development.
Meesho’s Vision: Scaling Impact, Not Just Infrastructure
Sanjeev Kumar, Founder and CTO of Meesho, emphasized the broader mission behind this initiative:
“Great technology should scale impact, not just infrastructure. By open-sourcing BharatMLStack, we’re sharing a high-scale AI stack purpose-built for real-time use cases and tailored for Indian businesses.”
This move aligns with Meesho’s commitment to fostering innovation and building a vibrant AI ecosystem in India, especially as the company prepares for its upcoming IPO.
Conclusion: A New Dawn for AI-Driven Startups in India
Meesho’s decision to open-source BharatMLStack is a pioneering step that could transform how Indian startups build and scale AI-powered products. By providing accessible, scalable, and India-centric machine learning infrastructure, Meesho is not only strengthening its own technological leadership but also catalyzing growth and innovation across the country’s vibrant startup ecosystem.
For startups navigating the complex AI landscape, BharatMLStack offers a ready-made, cost-efficient platform that can accelerate their journey from idea to impact.