Hero MotoCorp Chairman Pawan Munjal and DCM Shriram Chairman Ajay Shridhar Shriram along with a clutch of existing investors of social networking app ShareChat have put $40 million in the company. The investment is raised to aid growth of ShareChat’s alternative to TikTok — Moj that had cropped up along with over a dozen similar apps in the short video segment to tap into the Chinese apps ban by the Indian government on June 29, 2020. ShareChat, announcing the investment, said that large parts of the fund have been earmarked for “doubling down on investments made towards product development, growing its creator ecosystem and establishing partnerships with music labels.”
Munjal along with Shriram have invested through their respective family offices. The existing investors in the round included SAIF Partners, Twitter, Lightspeed Ventures and India Quotient. “The economic and demographic ecosystem of the internet universe is primed for companies like ShareChat and their products. I have immense faith in the young entrepreneurs of our country and truly believe in their aim to achieve a significant global customer base,” said Munjal in a statement. “The passion and success exhibited by the company and its growth trajectory has encouraged the development of a whole new social media product ecosystem in India,” Shriram said.
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ShareChat claimed that along with Moj, it has more than 240 million monthly active users (MAU) currently while ShareChat has exceeded more than 160 million MAUs in August with the average daily time spent by users on the app at 31 minutes. The company added that Moj has more than 80 million MAUs with average time spend by users at around 34 minutes. The new round brought ShareChat’s total investment to $264 million.
Ever since India banned TikTok along with 58 other apps in the first phase of Chinese apps ban, multiple apps like Chingari, Trell, Mitron, MX TakaTak, Triller, Josh, Zoomerang, Tna Tan, Zili, Snack Video, Rizzle, Moo, Dubshoot and more have appeared to cater to short video segment in India that also has previously existing apps like Roposo. Investors too have jumped into the fray in their attempt to figure out and back the next best TikTok alternative. Nexus Venture Partners, 3one4 Capital, AngelList India, iSeed, Village Global, LogX Ventures, Sequoia’s Surge, Eagle10 Venture, Fosun RZ Capital, multiple angel investors, entrepreneurs and many more have poured money into short video apps.
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