Mumbai: Mohalla Tech, the parent company behind Moj and ShareChat, has raised US$266 million as part of its Series G round. At a valuation of US$ 3.7 billion, the investment has been led by Alkeon Capital with participation from new and existing investors including Temasek, Moore Strategic Ventures (MSV), Harbourvest and India Quotient. This is the third round of funding for the startup in 2021.
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. With these highly experienced hires, Mohalla Tech has today one of India’s largest AI/ML teams working on building a cutting-edge recommendation engine.
Since Jan 2021, the company has grown to over 2000 employees and added several new features as it focuses on building its products to be the leader in the Indian short video and social media space. With social and live commerce initiatives, the company hopes to reach a target of US $ 100 million annualized creator earnings by the end of 2023.
Commenting on the latest funding round, Ankush Sachdeva, CEO & Co-founder, Moj and ShareChat said, “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.”
He further added, “It is heartening to add reputed names like Alkeon Capital and others to our cap-table while existing investors have also chosen to increase their investments in us at our new valuation. This is a reflection of their belief in our long term vision and a shared desire to democratise social media for India.”
Deepak Ravichandran, General Partner at Alkeon Capital said, “By leveraging multiple apps, a best-in-class AI recommendation engine, and local language content, ShareChat is building the leading social media platform in India. In one of the fastest-growing and most dynamic internet markets in the world – with an estimated 600M+ (mostly mobile) internet users – ShareChat is already entrenched as the largest and most engaging social and digital media platform. We are excited to partner with and support ShareChat’s best-in-class management team as they pursue their robust product roadmap and build on their ambitious vision.”
