ShareChat, a regional social media platform, on Friday announced that it had raised a new round of funding of $100 million in its Series-D funding, where Twitter and TrustBridge Partners are two new investors.
To date, ShareChat has raised $224 million. Existing investors participating in this round include Shunwei Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, SAIF Capital, India Quotient and Morningside Venture Capital.
This new round of funding will help ShareChat strengthen the technology infrastructure for its platform as the company looks to scale its business. Additionally, ShareChat will acquire talent to help propel the exchange of ideas among its strategic partners. To accelerate the internet ecosystem in India, the company will also be introducing more features to make the experience seamless across devices.
“This is a very exciting time for us at ShareChat as we see our platform growing rapidly. With this new round of funding, we are positioned to take the next leap in our growth story. As we scale up, our focus remains to help the ShareChat community better express themselves in the comfort of their native language,” Ankush Sachdeva, CEO, ShareChat said.
Manish Maheshwari, Managing Director of Twitter India said that Twitter and ShareChat are aligned on the broader purpose of serving the public conversation, helping the world learn faster and solve common challenges. This investment will help ShareChat grow and provide the company’s management team access to Twitter’s executives as thought partners, he added.
“Lightspeed is excited to continue to support ShareChat in every financing round – Series A through the current Series D, and beyond. We feel the company has a special opportunity to consolidate its position as the defining media platform to engage India’s diverse, multicultural and multilingual population,” Ravi Mhatre, Founder & Managing Director, Lightspeed Venture Partner said,.
Tuck Lye Koh, Founding Partner and CEO, Shunwei Capital said, “We are excited to see users creating a lively community with diverse vernacular content on ShareChat. The diversity and depth of user generated content has enhanced the stickiness of the product, and will contribute great business value to ShareChat as a platform. We look forward to the next stage in ShareChat’s evolution.”
Anand Lunia, Partner, India quotient said, “Today, ShareChat stands for opportunities, learning, entertainment, and a lot more. In a very short span of time, the platform has become the heartbeat of Bharat and hence it is playing a pivotal role in impacting the lives of consumers across the country. This round will give us the wherewithal to build some of the use cases of the platform and further connect the next million users to the benefits of the technology.”
Mayank Khanduja, Principal, SAIF Partners said, “We have been a part and parcel of ShareChat’s growth journey since the beginning and are thrilled to see them become the leading social platform for the new internet users in India. The team’s compassion to build a platform based on strong consumer insights has made ShareChat, a compelling platform where users consume content, connect with their friends and even purchase products and services from other users. This investment round is a validation of the social strength of ShareChat and we are excited about the potential this partnership holds in the coming year.”
Commenting on the strategic funding, Yu Cheng, Partner at Morningside Venture Capital said, “We are glad to see ShareChat growing in leaps and bounds. The company has been constantly striving to accumulate consumer insights and is continuing to deliver innovative product experiences to its massive user base. With more strategic and financial investors joining at this round, we are very confident about the company’s compelling growth in the coming year.”
ShareChat is India’s largest regional social network allowing users to share their opinions, record their lives and make new friends – all within the comfort of their native language. Spearheading India’s internet revolution, ShareChat is changing the way in which the next billion users will interact on the internet.
Source: Business-Standard