Mohalla Tech, the parent company of short video platform Moj and ShareChat, on Thursday said it has raised USD 266 million (about Rs 2,028.3 crore) from Alkeon Capital and others, valuing the company at USD 3.7 billion.
The series G round also saw participation from new and existing investors including Temasek, Moore Strategic Ventures (MSV), Harbourvest and India Quotient, a statement said. This is the third round of funding for the startup in 2021. Founded in 2015, Mohalla Tech has now raised over USD 1.177 billion across eight fundraising rounds with USD 913 million raised this year itself. It had announced raising USD 145 million in July this year at a valuation of USD 2.88 billion.
In April, it had raised USD 502 million at a valuation of over USD 2.1 billion. The latest round of funding will help build deep capabilities on priority areas such as social and live commerce, growing its AI/ML team which is now over a 100 people strong and spread across the US, Europe and India, the statement said. Since January this year, the company has grown to over 2,000 employees. With social and live commerce initiatives, the company hopes to reach a target of USD 100 million annualised creator earnings by the end of 2023.
“Moj and ShareChat have been growing at an explosive pace. Both our products have been leading the market with the highest monthly active user base, a very active creator set and amazing new partnerships to delight our community. This fresh funding will further strengthen our position and help us deliver immersive social experiences to our community, Mohalla Tech co-founder and CEO Ankush Sachdeva said.
He added that the addition of names like Alkeon Capital and others to its cap-table while existing investors continuing to increase their investments in the company at new valuation is a reflection of their belief in the company’s long term vision. In one of the fastest-growing and most dynamic internet markets in the world with an estimated over 600 million (mostly mobile) internet users ShareChat is already entrenched as the largest and most engaging social and digital media platform,” Alkeon Capital General Partner Deepak Ravichandran said.
The average user time spent on Moj is 34 minutes a day, scoring over 4.5 billion views daily. ShareChat, the Indic language social media platform, sees average user time of 31 minutes daily. Moj and ShareChat, together, have 340 million-strong user community.
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