Sharechat gets $49 million funding from investors, aims to be profitable in…

In the last funding round, Sharechat was valued at almost $5 billion.

Social media unicorn ShareChat raised $48.89 million in a round led by Tencent and Lightspeed. The round, amid a funding winter for tech startups, saw the participation of HarbourVest, Moore Strategic Ventures, Rimco and Alkeon. In the last funding round, Sharechat was valued at almost $5 billion while its peers in the social media space- X (formerly Twitter) and Snap- witnessed large drops in valuation.

ShareChat (Mint)

Sharechat's troubles in the past one year

In December 2023, Sharechat fired 200 employees- almost 15 percent of its workforce- which was the second such move last year. The company said that it attempts to cut costs and achieve profitability within the next four to six quarters.

Co-founders of the company Bhanu Pratap Singh and Farid Ahsan also stepped down after raising $3 million in seed funding from venture capital firms India Quotient, Elevation Capital and other angel investors for their startup General Autonomy.

A look at Sharechat's financials

The company is backed by investors such as X (formerly Twitter), Google, Lightspeed and Temasek. Its revenue increased by 59 per cent to ₹553 crore in FY23 from the previous year, the company's annual financial report showed.

During the same period, the company's net losses shot up 72 per cent to ₹5,144 crore owing to rising server rents, financing costs, foreign exchange losses, it said.