ShareChat

Valuation of ShareChat falls below $2B in latest round of funding

Sharechat Lead 2
Social media startup ShareChat’s valuation has cratered below $2 billion from nearly $5 billion in a new funding round, a source familiar with the situation told TechCrunch, marking a steep decline for the nine-year-old Indian startup that boasts over 400 million users in the South Asian market. It did not disclose the valuation at which the funds were raised but strongly denied that its new valuation was below $2 billion, asserting there was “no valuation” attached to the round. Existing investors including Lightspeed, Temasek, Alkeon Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures and HarbourVest have invested in the new round, the startup said. Their debt will convert to equity at a valuation below $2 billion in the next round, according to a source with direct knowledge of the terms. ShareChat was valued at $4.9 billion in a funding round it raised in mid-2022.

“New Funding Sparks Significant Valuation Reduction for ShareChat”

Sharechat Lead
ShareChat is in final stages of deliberations to secure about $50 million in new funding that trims the startup’s valuation to below $1.5 billion, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The terms of the talks, which are still ongoing so they may slightly change, currently value ShareChat below $1.5 billion, the sources said, a steep drop from the $4.9 billion valuation at which ShareChat raised funding early last year. (In late 2020 and early 2021, X explored buying ShareChat in a $2 billion deal, TechCrunch exclusively reported earlier.) Prosus recently marked down the valuation of Byju’s to below $3 billion, down from $22 billion in early 2022. Byju’s has raised more than $5 billion in equity and via debt over the years.