ShareChat rakes in $266 Mn led by Alkeon Capital at $3.7 Bn valuation

Vernacular social media and short video entertainment platform ShareChat has cornered $266 million in a new round led by Alkeon Capital and some existing investors including  Temasek Holdings and Moore Strategic Ventures. 

This is the fourth funding event for the Bengaluru-based company in 2021. In January Snap had invested in ShareChat while the company has raked in $145 million in April and $145 million in July.

According to a company’s release, ShareChat has been valued at $3.7 billion in the new financing. It has registered 20% growth in valuation in five months. It was valued $2.88 billion in August. Entrackr has decoded ShareChat’s funding round which was led by Moore.

According to the company, the proceeds will be used to build social and live commerce segments and growing its tech workforce. 

With this, ShareChat has raised over $1.17 billion across eight fundraising rounds since its inception in 2015. In 2021 alone, it has raised $913 million. Lightspeed is the largest stakeholder in the Ankush Sachdeva-led firm.

Besides the equity rounds, ShareChat has also raised one of the largest debt rounds by an Indian startup this year. The company had picked up $225 million debt during its $502 million fundraising which also made the company a unicorn.

ShareChat also has expanded its ESOPs pool to Rs 513 crore by adding Rs 280 crore worth shares in April.

While the company is yet to file annual financial statements for FY21, ShareChat had recorded operating revenue for the first time in FY20. It has an income of Rs 9.4 crore against Rs 676 crore loss during FY20. With Rs 329.4 crore, the company’s largest cost centre was marketing and business development in the fiscal year ending March 2020.