ShareChat Raises $266 Million in Fresh Funding for Valuation of $3.7 Billion

Content-sharing platform ShareChat on Thursday said it had raised $266 million (roughly Rs. 2,030 crore) in fresh funding from U.S.-based Alkeon Capital and some existing investors, pushing its valuation to $3.7 billion (roughly Rs. 28,210 crore).

The new investments, part of ShareChat's third funding round this year, was led by Alkeon and saw participation from Singapore's Temasek Holdings and Moore Strategic Ventures, among others, the company said in a statement.

Reuters is first to report the fund raising.

ShareChat raised $145 million (roughly Rs. 1,868 crore) in July from Temasek and others at a valuation of around $3 billion (roughly Rs. 22,880 crore).

Content-sharing and short-video apps have become popular in the country since New Delhi last year banned ByteDance's TikTok and some other Chinese apps following an India-China border clash.

ShareChat - which has 180 million active users - allows users to post content in 15 Indian languages. After TikTok was banned, the firm also launched a similar short-video sharing app named Moj which has 160 million users and counts Meta Platforms Inc's Instagram Reels as its key rival.

"Both our products have been leading the market ... This fresh funding will further strengthen our position and help us deliver immersive social experiences," Ankush Sachdeva, ShareChat's CEO, said in a statement.

The company will also use the funds to develop its apps' artificial-intelligence capabilities, it said.

Social media and video-sharing apps in the country have been sought after by investors who want to cash in on India's rapidly growing base of internet and smartphone users. Indian consumers - both in urban and rural areas - are increasingly consuming digital video content through apps or streaming platforms.

ShareChat said in its statement that users of its Moj app spent an average 34 minutes every day consuming video content.

© Thomson Reuters 2021