5Y News | Indian Social Media Platform ShareChat Raises $145 Million at ~$3 Billion Valuation
The qualities that define exceptional founders transcend borders.
Indian social media platform ShareChat recently announced it has raised $145 million in funding led by Temasek, Moore Strategic Ventures, and Mirae-Naver Asia Growth Fund. Three months prior, ShareChat had completed a $502 million funding round. The company has now closed its Series F at a valuation of roughly $3 billion. The new capital will go toward building out its AI Feed and attracting and incentivizing creators.
5Y Capital participated in the company's Series C and Series D rounds in 2018 and 2019.
Cheng Yu, Partner at 5Y Capital, said: "I've always admired Ankush and the young, ambitious team he's built. I still remember my first business trip to India over four years ago — beyond the obvious surface-level chaos, you could sense a raw, almost 'unrefined' vitality brewing underneath, much like China years ago. And I picked up the same 'scent' from many Indian founders that I'd encountered in outstanding Chinese entrepreneurs — the qualities of a great founder transcend borders, and Ankush is the perfect example. I still vividly remember the first time he walked me through the product logic behind ShareChat, such a distinctive app. Congratulations to the company on completing two rounds totaling $650 million in just three months, and to Moj for rapidly becoming India's #1 short-video app."
"This financing confirms our market leadership and reflects investors' confidence in our capabilities. We are incredibly proud of what Moj and ShareChat have achieved over the past 12 months," said ShareChat co-founder and CEO Ankush Sachdeva.
ShareChat was founded in 2015 by Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Singh, and Farid Ahsan to offer Indian users a new way to socialize online.
ShareChat lets users post content in 15 Indian languages. People can share their moods, document their lives, publish text and video, and make new friends. The app's interface is extremely simple — new users can get the hang of it immediately — which allowed it to quickly penetrate India's lower-tier internet markets. ShareChat has since become India's largest regional social media platform.
In 2020, ShareChat launched short-video app Moj. Moj allows users to download and upload 15-second videos, and it can leverage ShareChat's social features to build a video-sharing community for its users.
Moj filled the void left by TikTok's exit from the Indian market. According to Sensor Tower, Moj has been downloaded nearly 200 million times since its launch last July.
Chart: India short-video app MAU, per App Annie
Image source: TechCrunch
"With 160 million monthly active users and a robust creator community in the millions, Moj has grown into India's top short-video app in just one year. To solidify our leadership, we'll continue investing in our AI capabilities, expanding our global AI organization, and building advanced editing tools to help creators monetize on the platform," said Ankush Sachdeva.
5Y Capital (formerly Morningside Venture Capital) currently manages approximately $5 billion across USD and RMB dual-currency funds. We believe the world becomes a better place when the crazy you that others see starts to be believed in.
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