Business Startups Venture

Twitter Leads $100M Investment In Sharechat, India’s ‘Rival To WhatsApp’

Twitter has led a $100 million Series D in Sharechat, what has been described by BBC as “India’s homegrown rival to WhatsApp,” according to TechCrunch’s Manish Singh and various other news outlets. The round values Sharechat at around $650 million, according to TC, which cited an unnamed source.

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Founded in 2015, Sharechat is considered to be India’s “fastest-growing social media platform in local languages.” It currently reportedly has 60 million monthly users across 15 regional languages, according to TechCrunch.

The news isn’t entirely a surprise as a few regional publications, including DealStreetAsia and The Economic Times, reported in June that the deal was in the works.

The round is notable in that it gives Twitter a foothold in one of the world’s largest countries and marks its first significant commitment into another region outside the U.S. Founder and CEO Jack Dorsey had firsthand involvement in securing the financing, according to The Economic Times. By investing in Sharechat, Twitter will have the ability to “go deeper into India’s smaller towns at a time when its user growth has plateaued,” noted the Times.

TrustBridge Partners, Shunwei Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, SAIF Capital, India Quotient and Morningside Venture Capital, also participated in the financing. With this round, Bangalore-based Sharechat has raised a total of $222.8 million, according to Crunchbase data. It last raised a $99.2 million Series C in September 2018 led by China’s Shunwei Capital.

While Twitter has acquired dozens of companies, it’s only invested in three, including Sharechat, according to Crunchbase data. This round marks its first time leading an investment.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias

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