ShareChat closes $520 million funding round at $5 billion valuation

Social media unicorn ShareChat said it has raised a total of $520 million in a multi-tranche round and reached $5 billion in valuation.

In the first part of the round, the company had raised $266 million in December 2021 from Alkeon Capital, Temasek, HarbourVest, Moore Strategic Ventures, and India Quotient. In the final tranche of this round, post the acquisition of MX TakaTak, ShareChat added Google and Times Group as new investors while Temasek participated yet again, adding $255 million.

ShareChat, which achieved unicorn status last year, said it has cumulatively raised $913 million since 2021.

The parent company of ShareChat runs short video platforms, Moj and TakaTak, besides the ShareChat app, which together cater to over 400 million users. ShareChat has in the past year, focused on rapidly monetising its various platforms and seen its revenue surge.

The company said it has built diversified monetisation avenues beyond advertising in areas like virtual gifting and video commerce. Virtual gifting is witnessing incredible adoption on the ShareChat app, with the business line already at a $$50 million ARR, which is set to more than double by year-end.

Sharechat said it has become one of India's largest voice-based live hangouts, with 2 billion minutes of audio streamed every month.

Since its launch in July 2020, Sharechat’s short video platform Moj has grown to over 3X daily active users and 2X daily time spent per user compared to its nearest domestic competitor, according to App Annie data from May 2022.

Ankush Sachdeva, CEO & Co-founder, ShareChat and Moj, said, “We are excited to announce the closing of our funding round and adding Google and The Times Group to our cap table. We are also happy and grateful to see Temasek reaffirming its faith in us for the third time in a year. Despite strong headwinds, it is reassuring to see investor confidence in ShareChat’s efforts and potential to grow further.”