Video content platform ShareChat has secured $16 million debt funding from Singapore-based sovereign fund EDBI by issuing convertible debentures. With the funding, it has expanded its previous debt fund round size to $65 million.
The Google-backed startup had raised $49 million debt funding in April through convertible debentures from a set of existing investors including Temasek, Lightspeed, HarbourVest, Moore Strategic, and Alkeon Capital.
The startup is set to use the fresh proceeds to work on new monetization features for creators and expand its customer transaction business.
ShareChat laid off around 40 employees this week on the grounds of poor performance, hardly accounting for 5% of their workforce. The company called it a usual practice that comes along the mid-year performance cycle, and that they are now seeking high-quality talent for the open positions.
ShareChat was founded in 2015 by Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Singh, and Farid Ahsan. Mohalla Tech is the parent entity that runs ShareChat and the short video content platform Moj. Moj was launched by ShareChat in July 2020. In 2022, the parent company acquired MX TakaTak, another short video platform from Times Internet for $600 million and merged it with Moj. As an Indian social media platform, ShareChat claims to have a monthly active user-base of 325 million across all platforms combined. Its monthly active user-base across the country is over 180 million.
To date, the video content platform has raised $1 billion with investors in the likes of Google, Tiger Global, Tencent, and X (formerly Twitter).
The content platform laid off a total of almost 800 employees in three chances last year and got close to shut down Jeet11, a fantasy app platform for sports, and its live commerce business. The cofounders Singh and Ahsan resigned last year and went on to establish a robotics startup General Autonomy that secured $3 million in seed funding from India Quotient and Elevation Capital in November.
Its net loss surged 38% to Rs 4,064.3 crore in FY23 from Rs 2,941.5 crore in the preceding financial year while its revenue jumped 62% to Rs 540.21 crore from Rs 332.69 crore in the same period.
The startup’s exercises for cost-cutting follow the funding drought and mounting losses. As a result, it has managed to bring down its burn rate below $5 million a month.
EDBI had previously invested in the indigenous home-decor startup Livspace, and this investment in ShareChat marks its second in Indian startups.
