On Thursday, the Indian social networking platform ShareChat (1) announced that it had secured 40 million USD from several investors. Notably, in recent months, the platform has added millions of new users.
Dr. Pawan Munjal, CEO, and Chairman of Hero MotoCorp, a giant two-wheeler manufacturer, Ajay Shridhar Shriram, the Chairman of DCM Shriram, a chemical manufacturing company, participated in the latest funding round. The Bangaluru-based startup also observed its existing investors, Twitter, Lightspeed Ventures, SAIF Partners, and Indian Quotient participation in the current fundraising.
As per the Co-founder and CEO of ShareChat, Ankush Sachdeva, the five-year-old startup stated that the latest infusion is part of its pre-Series E funding round. As per reports, the startup is also in talks with VC funds and corporate giants to raise an additional 100 million USD in the upcoming months. To date, the platform has raised over 264 million USD.
ShareChat Gets Phenomenal Growth in 2020
The fresh tranche would help the startup to give better support to its creators. The app that users can operate in 15 Indian languages has crossed 160 million monthly active users. Notably, the app reported over 60 million users in the same period last year. Users spend daily about 31 minutes on the app, claims the startup.
For the Indian startup ecosystem, the success of ShareChat under the social media category is a rare story. The country never dreamt of having a homegrown social media platform until 2015 when ShareChat embarked on the space.
The startup had taken another unusual move among Indian startups earlier this week. It had announced that it had added 14 million USD to its ESOP, employee stock ownership plan, taking the total over 35 million USD. Regarding the move, Sachdeva stated that it is vital for startup employees to feel valued as other giants in the market are looking for similar talent. The most significant competitors of ShareChat are peers from the US and Beijing.
Author: Rucha Joshi
Source : https://timesnext.com/sharechat-secures-40m-usd/
Date : 2020-09-24T14:19:12.000Z