Mohalla Tech, the parent company of short video format app and Indian language-focused social media platform , has announced raising $266 million in Series G round of funding led by US-based Alkeon Capital. The round also saw participation from new and returning investors including Temasek, Moore Strategic Ventures, Harbourvest, and India Quotient.
The round values Mohall Tech at $3.7 billion, up from a $2.88 billion valuation in July this year when it raised $145 million led by Temasek and Moore Strategic Ventures. Prior to that, the company had raised $502 million in April led by Tiger Global Management, which valued the company at $2.1 billion.
The current round takes the total capital raised by Mohalla Tech in 2021 to $913 million, said a statement issued by the company. Mohalla Tech has raised over $1.18 billion since inception in 2015 across eight funding rounds.
The company will utilise the capital to build capabilities for social and live commerce, growing its AI/ML team across the US, Europe, and India, which works on the company’s recommendation engine.
“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,” said Ankush Sachdeva, CEO and Co-founder of Moj and ShareChat.
Ankush co-founded the company with his IIT Kanpur batchmates Farid Ahsan and Bhanu Singh in 2015 with ShareChat platform. The company launched Moj in June 2020, right around the time the Indian government banned short video platform TikTok.
Moj claims to have a monthly active user (MAU) base of over 160 million while ShareChat claims to have over 180 MAUs. The company has over 2,000 employees and recently launched social commerce on its Moj app. The company hopes to reach a target of $100 million annualised creator earnings by the end of 2023 through these initiatives.
Moj competes closely with Ver Se backed short-video app Josh as well as InMobi backed Glance, both valued at over $1 billion.
