Google Said to Support India's ShareChat in Raising $300 Million Funding at $5 Billion Valuation

Google's investment in a bearish market for Indian start-ups shows the appetite for the short video sector.

By Reuters | Updated: 30 May 2022 15:16 IST

Photo Credit: Reuters

A deal is set to be announced as early as next week

Highlights

This is Google's second investment in India's short video space
Google previously backed Josh
ShareChat currently has 180 million monthly active users

The parent company of India's ShareChat has raised nearly $300 million (roughly Rs. 2,325 crore) in fresh funding from Alphabet's Google, media giant Times Group and Singapore's Temasek Holdings, valuing the social media firm at nearly $5 billion (roughly Rs. 38,763 crore), two sources involved in the deal discussions told Reuters.

A deal is set to be announced as early as next week, the sources added.

ShareChat's parent company, Mohalla Tech, did not respond to a request for comment. Google and Temasek did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while Reuters could not immediately reach the Times Group.

This is Google's second key investment in India's short video space, having previously backed Josh, which competes with ShareChat's sister firm Moj.

Google's investment in a bearish market for Indian start-ups shows the appetite for the short video sector and the start-up's investment thesis, one of the sources said. India's tech startups, which raised a record $35 billion (roughly Rs. 2,71,337 crore) in new funds in 2021, have been struggling to raise funds as corporate governance concerns loom large for investors facing a new uncertainty in global markets.

Short video apps like Moj and Josh shot up in popularity after India in 2020 banned ByteDance's TikTok and some other Chinese apps following a border clash with China.

ShareChat currently has 180 million monthly active users. Moj, along with Mohalla's recently acquired MX TakaTak, has a combined user base of 300 million, according to one of the sources.

ShareChat was last valued at $3.7 billion (roughly Rs. 28,686 crore) in a $266 million (roughly Rs. 2,062 crore) funding round from investors including Alkeon Capital and Temasek. The firm also counts Twitter and Snap among its investors.

If the bid by Tesla CEO Elon Musk to buy Twitter goes through, Musk will have potentially a stake of between 6 percent and 8 percent in ShareChat, the source added.

Should you pick Vivo over Galaxy S22 and OnePlus 10 Pro? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.