NEW DELHI: The parent company of India’s ShareChat has raised nearly $300 million in fresh funding from Alphabet Inc’s Google, media giant Times Group and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, valuing the social media firm at nearly $5 billion, 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.
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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 in a $266 million 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% and 8% in ShareChat, the source added.
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