Indian social network ShareChat on July 27 said its parent has raised $145 million led by Temasek, valuing it at $2.88 billion, higher than the $2 billion it was valued at in April.
Mohalla Tech, which runs ShareChat and short video app Moj, also raised money from Koren asset manager Mirae and Moore Strategic Ventures, helping the company double on its most aggressive period- both growth and fundraising wise.
Moneycontrol first reported on April 6 that Temasek was conducting due diligence for investment in ShareChat.
ShareChat has now raised nearly $650 million in the last quarter alone, its growth on a tear after Chinese social media apps like TikTok was banned by India last year. In April, it raised $500 million led by Tiger, Snapchat and Twitter.
The money will be used to hire senior technology talent, building a best-in-class Artificial Intelligence feed and attracting and incentivising a diverse creator base and amplifying platform health and safety.
“We are immensely proud of what we have been able to achieve with Moj and ShareChat in the last 12 months...with a monthly active user base of 160 million and 50+ million strong creator community, Moj in a year has grown into India’s number one short video app,” co-founder and CEO Ankush Sachdeva said.
Launched by three IIT Kanpur alumni- Sachdeva, Farid Ahsan and Bhanu Singh in 2015, ShareChat was among the early players in the regional language content and social media space in India, a space with dozens of players in the last year. New entrants include MX Player’s TakaTak, Chingari, Mitron TV and Dailyhunt Josh’s- which all launched along with Moj.
James McIntyre, Senior Managing Director and COO at MSV said, “We are excited to partner with Moj as they build India’s premier short-form video platform, and have been impressed by this management team’s speed and agility in capturing the opportunity. This round will help to accelerate that growth and allow Moj and ShareChat to continue to develop the best ecosystem for content creators and consumers alike."
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