ShareChat’s revenue grows 33% in FY24 to Rs 718 Cr

Mohalla Tech, the parent entity of the vernacular social media platform ShareChat and short video entertainment app Moj, has registered 33% year-on-year growth during the fiscal year ended March 2024. Its adjusted EBITDA loss also plummeted by 67% in the same period.

According to the company's press release, Mohalla Tech’s revenue from operations increased to Rs 718 crore in FY24 from Rs 540 crore in FY23.

Revenue from live streaming contributed 56% of the company's total operating income, which grew by 41.4% to Rs 403 crore in FY24. Advertising accounted for the remaining share, which saw a 23.5% year-on-year growth to Rs 315 crore in FY24.

ShareChat also added a non-operating income of Rs 29 crore mainly from interest and gain on financial assets which tallied the overall revenue to Rs 747 crore in the last fiscal year.

For the social media firm, server cost was the largest cost center in FY24. As per Sharechat’s chief financial officer Manohar Charan, the firm managed to reduce this cost by 50% in FY24.

Sharechat has managed to reduce its employee benefits cost by 17% to Rs 580 crore in FY24. This includes Rs 126 crore as ESOP (non-cash). Its advertising, legal, travel, and other overheads took the overall operating expenses to Rs 1540 crore in FY24 from Rs 3119 crore in FY23.

In calculating the overall cost, we have excluded all non-cash components, including interest, provisions, foreign exchange (FX) losses, depreciation, and ESOP expenses for both FY24 and FY23.

The 33% growth and controlled server cost helped Mohalla Tech to reduce its adjusted EBITDA losses by 67% to Rs 793 crore in FY24 from Rs 2400 crore in FY23. Notably, the net consolidated losses of the firm stood at Rs 1,898 crore in FY24 down from Rs 5,143 crore in FY23.

Backed by the likes of Temasek Holdings, Google, Twitter, The Times Group, Tiger Global, Snap, Lightspeed, and Elevation Capital, ShareChat claims to have more than 325 million monthly active users (MAUs) across all its platforms. Its short video app Moj boasts a monthly active user base of nearly 160 million.

The company recently expanded its debt round to $65 million, with a $16 million infusion from Singapore-based EDBI. According to startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, ShareChat has raised around $1.3 billion. However, it saw a major haircut in valuation to less than $2 billion from $5 billion during its last fundraise in June 2022.

As part of its mid-year performance cycle, the company also let go of 5% of its workforce in August this year. In 2023, ShareChat implemented several cost-cutting measures and laid off 700 employees across two phases.