Indian content-sharing platform ShareChat has raised $145 million in fresh funding, giving it a valuation of $2.88 billion, the company told Reuters on Tuesday. The funding round was led by Temasek and Moore Strategic Ventures, with participation from a fund jointly set up by Mirae Asset and South Korean web portal Naver Corp, ShareChat said in its statement.
The latest investments come around four months after ShareChat raised $502 million from Tiger Global, Snap Inc, Twitter, and some others, which at the time valued it at just over $2.1 billion. Founded in October 2015, the social media company has raised close to $911 million over seven funding rounds so far.
The funding signals a growing fascination for Indian content-sharing and short-video apps that have become popular ever since New Delhi last year banned ByteDance’s TikTok and some other Chinese apps following an India-China border clash.
ShareChat allows users to post content in 15 Indian languages. After TikTok was banned, the Indian firm also launched a similar short-video sharing app named Moj which has since become popular and clocked millions of downloads.
“With a monthly active user base of 160 million and over 50 million strong creator community, Moj in a year has grown into India’s number one short video app. To strengthen our leadership position, we will continue to invest in our AI capabilities, scaling our global AI org, building advanced editing tools, and helping our creators monetize on the platform,” Sachdeva said.
Moj competes with platforms like Dailyhunt’s Josh, MX TakaTak, which is owned by Times Internet, the internet arm of Times Group in the short video market. Post the ban of Bytedance-owned TikTok in India local players have been able to ratchet up investor interest.
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.”
