ShareChat Reports 764% Jump In Ad Revenue At Rs 77cr In FY21

Mohalla Tech, the owner of social media platform ShareChat and short video platform Moj, has posted a 754% increase in revenue at Rs 80.3 crore for the fiscal ended 31st March 2021 compared to Rs 9.4 crore in the previous fiscal.

According to the company's financial data accessed by business intelligence platform Tofler, net loss widened 116% to Rs 1460.7 crore from Rs 676.9 crore.

The Bengaluru-headquartered company has three revenue streams - advertisement income, gaming, and ecommerce. Advertisement revenue saw a huge jump of 764% at Rs 76.9 crore from Rs 8.9 crore. The company reported maiden revenue of Rs 3.4 crore from Chatrooms, ShareChat's voice-based hangout destination.

The company once again reported nil revenue from its sports fantasy platform Jeet11. In the ecommerce segment, the revenue was nil as against Rs 50 lakh in the previous fiscal. The company had acquired social commerce platform Elanic in February 2020 as part of its ecommerce push.

Domestic revenue services rose to Rs 28.3 crore from Rs 2.6 crore. Export revenue services jumped to Rs 52 crore from Rs 6.8 crore.

The company's total expenses ballooned 118% to Rs 1557 crore from Rs 714.9 crore. Total employee benefits expense shot up 122% to Rs 177.8 crore from Rs 80.3 crore. Content-related investments jumped 685% to Rs 99 crore from Rs 12.6 crore.

Further, the company spent Rs 42.4 crore on music-related contracts. This cost item was nil in the previous fiscal. Content onboarding expense zoomed 1589% to Rs 30.4 crore from Rs 1.8 crore. Content review expense rose 97.22% to Rs 21.3 crore from Rs 10.8 crore.

Business development expenses jumped 93% to Rs 611.5 crore from Rs 316.8 crore. Server rent cost increased 95% to Rs 366.9 crore from Rs 188.5 crore.

Mohalla Tech was incorporated on 8th January 2015. It has two wholly-owned subsidiaries, Mohalla Tech Games was incorporated on 8th November 2019 under the provisions of Companies Act 2013, and ShareChat Labs Inc was incorporated on 13th August 2020 under the provisions of the State of Delaware.

The group is primarily engaged in the business of operating Android and iOS based mobile software applications bearing the name and style ShareChat and Moj for creation, consumption, and sharing of various quotes, videos, images, news, and other content by users, and Jeet 11 for providing online fantasy sports platform.

During the current year, the group has incurred a loss and has a negative net worth as of 31st March 2021. The group said it is witnessing tremendous growth in the number of users on its platforms - 'ShareChat', 'Moj' and 'Jeet 11'.

Mohalla Tech also said it has incurred significant marketing expenses during the year to acquire market share, engage more users on its platforms, and further its objectives.

The company further stated that "the Groups loss for the year ended 31 March 2021 are in line with the internal budgets for the year". It added that the group is witnessing significant growth in the various streams of revenue.

In 2021, Mohalla Tech had cumulatively raised $913 million in three funding rounds.

In December 2021, it had raised $266 million as part of its Series G round at a valuation of $3.7 billion. The investment was led by Alkeon Capital with participation from new and existing investors including Temasek, Moore Strategic Ventures (MSV), Harbourvest, and India Quotient.

In July 2021, the company had raised $145 million at a $2.8 billion valuation from Temasek, Moore Strategic Ventures (MSV), along with participation from the Mirae-Naver Asia Growth fund. Before that, it had raised $502 million in April 2021 at a $2.1 billion valuation led by Lightspeed Ventures and Tiger Global, along with participation from Snap Inc, Twitter, and India Quotient, among others.