Sharechat, the Bangalore based social media platform, looks set to receive a $100 million investment from tech behemoths, Microsoft.
Amidst widely publicized negotiations of Microsoft potentially taking over video-sharing platform, TikTok’s US, Australia and New Zealand operations following Trump’s ban on the app, talks are under way for the company to invest in the Indian chat platform. Sharechat is a regional language app, with around 15 languages including Assamese, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada, Hindi, and Bhojpuri. It currently boasts a monthly user base of 140 million active users. The platform, in the course of its four year history, has previously received investment from the likes of Twitter, who, during a Series D funding round, helped Sharechat raise $100 million.
It is worth noting that shortly after TikTok’s ban by the Indian Government along with 59 other Chinese apps, Sharechat released it own short video sharing service, dubbed Moj, presumably in a bid to attract TikTok users. Moreover, Sharechat itself is a direct competitor or another social media platform, Hello, which is a product of Chinese internet technology outfit, Bytedance, the same company behind TikTok. Moj has reportedly crossed 50 million downloads off Google Play, since its release, with most of its users hailing from tier-2 and tier-3 Indian cities.
While Microsoft is looking to take over TikTok operations in a number of cities for an estimated $50 billion, the $100 million investment into Sharechat has been anonymously stated to be a third of what the platform aims to raise via its upcoming funding round.
Sharechat has previously been valued at around $650 million following Twitter’s endorsement. Talks of Microsoft’s investment, though very much in full swing, are in the early stages, with Sharechat expected to first raise capital from existing investors before approaching new ones.