ShareChat raises funds from Google, Temasek; co-founders hold less than 10% stake

Update:  ShareChat's parent Mohalla Tech announced that it has raised $255 million fresh funds from Google, Times Group and Temasek at a valuation of $5 billion.

Original post follows

Mohalla Tech, operator of vernacular social media ShareChat and short video entertainment platform Moj, has raised Rs 607 crore in a Series H round led by Google. This marks its first equity round for this year. In February, it had raised $100 million debt from Tencent.

ShareChat has issued 1,501 Series H CCPS at a price of 40,44,944 per share to raise Rs 607 crore, regulatory filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) show.

The round has been led by Google which pumped Rs 405 crore, whereas Temasek (via Macritchie Investments) invested Rs 202 crore. According to Fintrackr’s estimate, ShareChat has been valued in the range of $4.85 to $5 billion (post-money).

The Series H appears to be an ongoing one and the company is likely to raise more money in this round. According to a Reuters report, the company will raise nearly $300 million in this round at a valuation of $5 billion.

After the allotment of this tranche, Google will hold 1.07% stake in ShareChat while co-founders Farid Ahsan, Ankush Sachdeva, and Bhanu Pratap Singh have together diluted their shareholding to 9.68%. Lightspeed is the highest stakeholder with 10.98% followed by MX Singapore and Zennis Capital which hold 10.12% and 9.04% respectively.

ShareChat had recently turned market leader in the short video space after the acquisition of MX TakaTak. The company’s short video app Moj along with MX TakaTak reportedly has 300 million users.

In December last year, ShareChat had raised $266 million led by Alkeon Capital and existing investors including Temasek Holdings and Moore Strategic Ventures. Since 2021, ShareChat has raised six rounds of funding across equity and debt.

FY21 was the first fiscal year of meaningful revenue from operations in which its collection surged by 754.3% to Rs 80.3 crore. For the seven-year-old company which controls vernacular social media platform Sharechat and short video entertainment app Moj, advertising sales remained the major revenue driver (over 95%).

Meanwhile, its annual losses jumped 115.8% YoY to Rs 1,460 crore during fiscal year ending March 2021.