New Delhi: ShareChat said Thursday that it has raised $ 502 million (approximately $ 3.725 million) in funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Tiger Global, which values the homemade social media platform at more than $ 2.1 billion.
Snap Inc (which owns, among others, the photo-messaging app Snapchat) and existing investors Twitter and India Quotient, among others, also participated in the financing round in Mohalla Tech, the parent company of ShareChat and the short video app, Moj.
Founded in 2015, Mohalla Tech raised more than USD 766 million over six fundraising rounds.
‘We are at an exciting turning point in our journey, where we are going to a great opportunity with the right team in place and the support of long-term investors who are deeply convinced in our mission. With ShareChat and Moj, we are well positioned to build the largest AI-driven content ecosystem in India, ”said Ankush Sachdeva, CEO and co-founder of ShareChat.
With this addition of capital, the company will continue to aggressively grow the user base, build a world-class organization in India and the US, and further strengthen the creative community, the AI-powered recommendation engine and platform health, he added.
The company launched Moj in July 2020, a few days after the Indian government banned 59 programs with Chinese links, including rival TikTok.
Since the ban, several homemade apps like Roposo, Chingari and Josh (Dailyhunt) have seen a significant increase in download and login of users on their short video platforms.
Facebook-owned Facebook also took part in the race with Reels, while YouTube posted its first ‘Shorts’ in India to fill the void created after the TikTok ban.
Moj and ShareChat have a combined base of 280 million users.
“As Internet penetration increases, ShareChat’s leading content creation platform is poised to expand dramatically by engaging in online purchases of goods and services. In addition, Moj is well positioned to seize the opportunity offered by the growth of short video in India, ”said Scott Shleifer, a partner at Tiger Global.
Source: Telangana Today