Sharechat in advance talks with Google, Temasek to close $300 mn funding

Social media platform Sharechat’s parent firm Mohalla Tech is in advanced stage discussion with Google, Temasek and other investors to close a USD 300 million funding round at a valuation of USD 5 billion, a source aware of the development said on Tuesday.

The deal is expected to close in June. “Mohalla Tech is in an advanced stage of discussion with Google, existing investor Temasek and other investors to close a USD 300 million funding round. The transaction is expected to value Sharechat at around USD 5 billion,” the source said. When contacted, Google and Temasek declined to offer any comment on the matter, terming it speculative information.

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“As a matter of policy, Temasek does not comment on market speculation and rumours,” a Temasek spokesperson said. The email query sent to Mohalla Tech did not elicit any reply. Mohalla Tech had raised USD 266 million in December 2021 at a valuation of USD 3.7 billion. The company’s short video platform Sharechat claims to have around 180 million monthly active user-base.

In February, the company merged Times Group short video platform MX Takatak with its Moj platform claiming that Moj and MX TakaTak will create the largest short video platform for Indians, whereby the combined platform will have 100 million creators, over 300 million monthly active users (MAU), and nearly 250 billion monthly video views. The business of Sharchat, Moj, Chingari and other short video platforms zoomed after the government banned their Chinese competitor Tiktok, Helo etc.