ShareChat raises $145 million at a $2.88 billion valuation

Bangalore-based social media platform ShareChat announced on Tuesday that it has raised $145 million in fresh funding, giving it a valuation of $2.88 billion. Back in April, the company had raised $502 million Series E at a $2.1 billion valuation.

“This additional investment for Series F is a validation of our market leadership and a reflection of investor trust in our execution capabilities. We are immensely proud of what we have been able to achieve with Moj and ShareChat in the last 12 months” said Ankush Sachdeva, chief executive officer and co-founder, Moj and ShareChat.

The latest funding round (Series F) was led by Teemasek and Moore Strategic Ventures, with participation from a fund jointly set up by Mirae Asset and Naver Corp. 

“We have been very fortunate to attract a bunch of very high quality names in our series F and the list just got longer with Temasek, MSV and Mirae-Naver joining hands with us.”

Founded in 2015 by Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Pratap Singh and Farid Ahsan in Bangalore, ShareChat serves as a social media platform at its core. ShareChat, which also owns an application called Moj that allows sharing short videos, is a rival to TikTok with this application.

According to the information shared by the company, ShareChat has 180 million active users and Moj has more than 160 million active users. 

“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. 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,” said Sachdeva.

In February, sources familiar with the matter had said that Twitter reportedly held talks to acquire India-based social media startup ShareChat to create a global TikTok rival and expand in the Indian market.

“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,” said James McIntyre, Senior Managing Director and COO at MSV, in a statement.