Mohalla Tech — the parent company of social platforms Moj and ShareChat — on Tuesday said it has raised $145 million (about Rs 1,078.3 crore) in funding from Temasek, Moore Strategic Ventures (MSV) and Mirae-Naver Asia Growth Fund at a valuation of $2.88 billion.
The latest fund infusion is an extension of the Series F round and is in addition to the $502 million investment received in April this year, a statement from the company said.
“Investments raised this year, including this additional capital infusion, will help the company double down its strategic priorities of building best in class AI Feed, attracting and incentivising a diverse creator base and amplifying platform health and safety,” it added.
The company said it has hired senior executives in the artificial intelligence/machine learning spaces in recent months in the UK and the US.
It continues to aggressively look for more senior talents in this space. Moj and ShareChat together, with a 340 million-strong user community, envision building a cohesive AI-powered content ecosystem to address India's growing digital needs.
The latest fund raising reflects the interest shown by overseas investors in the Indian start-up universe. In the first half of 2021, investors have reportedly put at least $ 11 billion into Indian tech start-ups. Recently, Zomato made headlines with its bumper listing even as rival Swiggy raised $ 1.25 billion from SoftBank and others.
Mirae-Naver Asia Growth Fund is jointly set up by Mirae Asset and South Korean web portal Naver Corp.
Ankush Sachdeva, CEO and co-founder of Mohalla Tech said this additional investment for Series F is a reflection of investor trust in the company's execution capabilities.
“We are immensely proud of what we have been able to achieve with Moj and ShareChat in the last 12 months. With a monthly active user base of 160 million and over 50 million-strong creator community, Moj in a year has grown into India's number one short video app," he added.
To strengthen its leadership position, the company will continue to invest in AI capabilities, scaling global AI setup, building advanced editing tools and helping creators monetise on the platform, Sachdeva said.
