ShareChat (Mohalla Tech Pvt Ltd), India’s largest homegrown social media company, announced Thursday the closure of its multi-tranche funding round through which it raised a total of $520 million and reached $5 billion in valuation.

ShareChat said in a statement that in the first part of the round, it had raised $266 million in December 2021 from Alkeon Capital, Temasek, HarbourVest, Moore Strategic Ventures, and India Quotient.

In the final tranche of this round, post the acquisition of MX TakaTak, ShareChat added Google and Times Group as new investors while Temasek participated yet again, adding $255 million.

ShareChat, which achieved unicorn status last year, has collectively raised $913 million in 2021, the highest funding among all companies that became unicorns during the year.

ShareChat runs India’s largest short video platforms, Moj and TakaTak, besides the ShareChat app, which together cater to over 400 million users. It has in the past year, focused on rapidly monetizing its various platforms and seen its revenue surge.

The company has built diversified monetization avenues beyond advertising in areas like virtual gifting and video commerce. Virtual gifting is witnessing incredible adoption on the ShareChat app, with the business line already at a $50 million accounting rate of return (ARR), which is set to more than double by year-end.

The ShareChat app, over the years, has grown to be India’s largest content ecosystem. In 2020, it launched Audio Chatrooms as a feature. Today, it has become one of India’s largest voice-based live hangouts, with two billion minutes of audio streamed every month.

Since its launch in July 2020, Moj has grown to become India’s favourite short video app with over three times daily active users and two times daily time spent per user compared to its nearest domestic competitor (App Annie data, May 2022).

With the most extensive music library, an in-app chat feature, and, more recently, the opportunity for creators to stream live to millions of their fans on the platform, creators are increasingly making Moj their new home.

In recent months, Moj has also become a key social commerce platform in the country through its exclusive partnership with Flipkart.

“We are excited to announce the closing of our funding round and adding Google and The Times Group to our cap table. We are also happy and grateful to see Temasek reaffirming its faith in us for the third time in a year. Despite strong headwinds, it is reassuring to see investor confidence in ShareChat’s efforts and potential to grow further,

“Over a year ago, we turned unicorn, and since then, we have been scaling and innovating at an exhilarating pace, further refining our offerings and expanding our operations. The coming year will be about capitalizing on the scale and building robust revenue models. We are committed to empowering every Indian by providing platforms to share experiences, discover new opportunities, showcase their talents and make their passion a means to a livelihood,” said Ankush Sachdeva, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of ShareChat and Moj.

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