ShareChat, an Indian content-sharing platform, has raised $145 million in new funding from Temasek Holdings and two other investors, valuing it at $2.88 billion.
The funding reflected a rising interest in Indian content-sharing and short-video apps, which have grown in popularity since India banned ByteDance’s TikTok and a few other Chinese apps during a border spat last year.
ShareChat allows users to post content in 15 Indian languages. After TikTok was banned, the Indian company also launched a similar short-video sharing app named Moj which has since become popular gained millions of downloads.
Temasek and Moore Strategic Ventures led the latest round of fundraising, with participation from a fund jointly set up by Mirae Asset and South Korean website Naver Corp., according to ShareChat’s statement.
The latest investments come just four months after Tiger Global, Snap Inc, Twitter, and others invested $502 million in ShareChat, valuing it at just over $2.1 billion at the time.
Ankush Sachdeva ShareChat CEO
“Investments raised this year including this additional capital infusion will help the company double down on its strategic priorities. The company will continue to invest in video app Moj’s artificial intelligence capabilities and improve its in-app editing features.”
There are 180 million active users on ShareChat. Moj has 160 million users and competes with Facebook’s Instagram Reels. Investors are flocking to India’s digital startup ecosystem.
Last week Zomato, backed by China’s Ant Group, made a strong debut on Indian stock exchanges, valuing the company at $13 billion, while others, such as SoftBank-backed ride-hailing firm Ola, are also considering IPOs.
According to a source, the company has no immediate intentions for an IPO and will instead focus on expanding its current business and offers.
