Indian content-sharing platform ShareChat has raised $145 million in fresh funding from Singapore’s Temasek Holdings and two other investors, giving it a valuation of $2.88 billion, the company said.
The funding signals growing fascination for Indian content-sharing and short-video apps that have become popular ever since New Delhi last year banned ByteDance’s TikTok and some other Chinese apps following an India-China border clash.
ShareChat allows users to post content in 15 Indian languages. After TikTok was banned, the Indian firm also launched a similar short-video sharing app named Moj which has since become popular and clocked millions of downloads.
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The latest funding round was led by Temasek and Moore Strategic Ventures, with participation from a fund jointly set up by Mirae Asset and South Korean web portal Naver Corp, ShareChat said in its statement.
The latest investments come around four months after ShareChat raised $502 million from Tiger Global, Snap Inc, Twitter and some others, which at the time valued it at just over $2.1 billion.
“Investments raised this year including this additional capital infusion will help the company double down (on) its strategic priorities,” ShareChat said.
The company will continue to invest in artificial-intelligence capabilities of video app Moj and enhance its in-app editing tools, said CEO Ankush Sachdeva.
ShareChat has 180 million active users. Moj has 160 million users and counts Facebook’s Instagram Reels as its top rival.
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India’s digital startups ecosystem is becoming a darling of investors.
China’s Ant Group-backed food delivery firm Zomato had a stellar debut on Indian bourses last week, valuing the firm at $13 billion, while others including SoftBank-backed ride-hailing firm Ola are also eyeing IPOs.
ShareChat has no immediate IPO plans and the company for now will focus on expanding its current business and offerings, a source familiar with the strategy said.
