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ShareChat raises $16 Mn additional debt; lays off 5% employees
Entrackr
·
1y ago
Medial
Mohalla Tech, the parent entity of the vernacular social media platform ShareChat and short video entertainment app Moj, has expanded its debt round to $65 million with $16 million latest infusion from Singapore-based EDBI. In April, ShareChat had raised around $49 million in debt from existing investors including Temasek, Lightspeed, HarbourVest, Moore Strategic, Rimco and Alkeon. The company also saw its valuation nosedived to less than $2 billion from $5 billion during its last fundraise in June 2022. The additional funds will be utilized for advertising company’s tech stack and expand the consumer transactions businesses with investment in newer monetization features, ShareChat said in a press release. A Moneycontrol report also said that ShareChat has let go of 5% of its workforce as a part of its mid-year performance cycle. In 2023, the firm put several cost-cutting measures and sacked 700 employees across two phases. “…some employees are impacted on the basis of performance. This accounts for less than 5% of our workforce. We have a number of open positions and we continue looking for high quality talent across functions,” said a company spokesperson. According to startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, ShareChat has raised around $1.8 billion from investors including Twitter (now X), Alkeon Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures, and Tencent, among others. ShareChat claims that the app is operationally profitable for the past several months, while the Moj app is close to operating break-even. Both apps cater to over 325 million users. While the Ankush Sachdeva-led firm is yet to file its FY24 financials, it spent nearly Rs 4,000 crore in FY23 to earn Rs 533 crore in revenue. Overall, it recorded Rs 3,241 crore loss in FY23. The surge in losses was primarily due to the write-off undertaken by the company for the acquisition of Moj’s competitor MxTakaTak. ShareChat spent nearly $700 million via cash and stock to acquire the Times Internet-backed company.
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Sharechat shuts its fantasy platform Jeet11, lays off 5% employees
YourStory
·
1y ago
Medial
Mohalla Tech, the parent company of ShareChat and Moj, has shut down its fantasy gaming platform Jeet11, resulting in layoffs of about 5% of its workforce. The move follows Mohalla Tech's decision to cease operations of Jeet11 due to cash considerations. The company clarified that most of the laid-off employees were from non-tech roles, while tech employees would be absorbed into ShareChat and Moj. The decision comes after ShareChat's recent $520 million funding round, which valued the company at $5 billion.
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Google-backed ShareChat raises $49 Mn debt
Entrackr
·
1y ago
Medial
Mohalla Tech, the parent entity of the vernacular social media platform ShareChat and short video entertainment app Moj, has raised around $49 million in debt from existing investors. The company has passed a board resolution to issue 4,895 Series I debentures at an issue price of $10000 each to raise $49 million, regulatory filing with RoC shows. Existing investors including Temasek, Lightspeed, HarbourVest, Moore Strategic, Rimco and Alkeon invested in the debt round. Inc42 reported the development first. The fresh funding comes at a time when ShareChat was looking to raise $50 million in a down round to the tune of $1.5 billion. The firm was valued at $5 billion during its last fundraise in June 2022. According to startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, ShareChat has raised around $1.8 billion from investors including Twitter (now X), Alkeon Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures, and Tencent, among others. ShareChat has been eyeing a large equity round but the company is finding it difficult to rope in new and existing backers. It also put several cost-cutting measures and laid off 700 employees across two phases in 2023. The company’s struggle is largely driven by its inability to monetise from the user base which has low-purchasing power. Even after nine-year of its operations, ShareChat had to spend nearly Rs 4,000 crore in FY23 to earn Rs 533 crore in revenue. On a unit level, it spent Rs 7.16 to earn a rupee of operating revenue in the last fiscal. This is one of the highest expense-to-revenue ratios for a unicorn in FY23. The surge in losses was primarily due to the write-off undertaken by the company for the acquisition of Moj’s competitor MxTakaTak. The company spent heavily ($700 million via cash and stock) to acquire the Times Internet-backed company. While ShareChat has almost no competition after the blanket ban on China-origin apps like Bytedance-owned Helo, its short video app Moj competes with Dailyhunt’s Josh, YouTube Shorts and Instagram.
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ShareChat raises Rs 407 crore in debt months after reporting a loss of over Rs 4,000 crore: Report
IndianStartupNews
·
1y ago
Medial
Indian social media platform ShareChat's parent company, Mohalla Tech, has raised $49 million in debt financing from existing investors, including Temasek, Lightspeed, and Tencent. The company, valued at $5 billion previously, is facing financial challenges and aiming for profitability amid tough funding conditions. To cut costs, ShareChat has laid off around 800 employees and discontinued certain services. The startup has raised over $1.7 billion in funding to date.
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ShareChat Raises $49 Mn Debt From Lightspeed, Temasek, Others
Inc42
·
1y ago
Medial
Indian social media platform ShareChat has raised $48.8m in convertible debentures from existing investors including Temasek and Tencent. It plans to use the funding to navigate towards profitability in the next 12 to 15 months. ShareChat, backed by Google, has been implementing cost-cutting measures and reducing its burn rate. It has also laid off employees and discontinued certain business ventures. Although the start-up's net loss increased 38% to INR 4,064.3 crore ($545m) in FY23, its revenue rose 62% to INR 540.21 crore. ShareChat has raised over $1bn in funding to date.
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ShareChat lays off about 200 employees across verticals
Economic Times
·
1y ago
Medial
Social media platform ShareChat has laid off around 200 employees, constituting 15% of its workforce, as part of a restructuring effort to cut costs and achieve profitability in the next 4-6 quarters. Backed by Google and Temasek Holdings, ShareChat is also reportedly seeking $50 million in new funding at a valuation below $1.5 billion. This move has primarily impacted roles in the company's product functions.
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ShareChat cuts 5% jobs as part of performance review cycle
Entrackr
·
6m ago
Medial
ShareChat cuts 5% jobs as part of performance review cycle Vernacular social media platform ShareChat is reportedly laying off about 5% of its workforce, marking its second round of layoffs in the past six months. In August 2024, ShareChat let go of 5% of its workforce as part of its mid-year performance cycle. In 2023, the firm implemented several cost-cutting measures and sacked 700 employees across two phases. According to Moneycontrol, which first reported the news, ShareChat currently employs between 530 and 550 people, and around 5% will be let go as part of an annual review process set to conclude later this month. Entrackr has reached out to ShareChat for comments. In 2024, the Ankush Sachdeva-led firm raised $65 million in debt across two tranches. ShareChat has raised around $1.3 billion from investors including Twitter (now X), Alkeon Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures, and Tencent, among others. In the last fiscal year, ShareChat's operational revenue increased by 29.9% to Rs 718.1 crore from Rs 552.73 crore in FY23. With a reduction in expenses and moderate growth in scale, the company's losses decreased by 41.4% to Rs 1,898.94 crore in FY24. In 2024, the number of layoffs dropped significantly to 4,700 employees, a sharp decrease from the 24,000 layoffs in 2023 and 20,000 in 2022. With funding recovery underway, layoffs are expected to decrease further in the current calendar year.
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NVIDIA-backed Cohere lays off 5% of staff after $500 mn fundraise
Times Now
·
1y ago
Medial
AI startup Cohere is laying off around 20 employees, equivalent to roughly 5% of its workforce. This comes after the startup raised $500 million in funding at a valuation of $5.5 billion, more than double its valuation from June 2023. AMD, Salesforce, Oracle, NVIDIA and Canadian pension investment manager PSP Investments were among the investors that participated in the funding.
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Character AI lays off at least 5% of its staff
Economic Times
·
11m ago
Medial
Chatbot startup Character.AI has reportedly laid off around 5% of its workforce, mainly in marketing and recruiting departments. The company is refocusing its efforts to build personalized AI products and has signed a licensing agreement with Google for its language model technology. Character.AI had previously raised $193 million in venture capital and was in talks to secure additional funding from Google. The exact number of employees affected by the layoffs has not been disclosed.
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ShareChat to raise $60 Mn via convertible notes from Google, Lightspeed At $2.8 Bn valuation
Inc42
·
1y ago
Medial
Indian social media platform ShareChat is reportedly in advanced talks to raise $60 million in funding from existing investors, including Google, Lightspeed, and Temasek. The funds will be raised through convertible notes with a discounted valuation of $2.8 billion. ShareChat had previously laid off 15% of its workforce, or around 200 employees, and is looking to reduce its burn rate. The startup was last valued at $4.9 billion in March 2022 and has raised over $1 billion in funding so far.
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Cashback first: ShareChat’s $49 mn round comes with strings attached
The Arc Web
·
1y ago
Medial
Indian social media company Mohalla Tech, which owns ShareChat and Moj, has raised $49 million in a convertible debt round, led by Tencent, Temasek, and Lightspeed. The funding will support the company's path to profitability, though valuation details were not disclosed. Existing investors such as Alkeon Capital and Moore Strategic Ventures participated in the round. Investors in this round will have senior liquidation preference rights, giving them priority for repayment in the event of a sale or liquidity event. ShareChat has also announced doubling the ESOP allocation for employees. The company aims to achieve overall profitability in 12 months.
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