Two Co-Founders Of Video Sharing Platform ShareChat Step Down

This comes a week after 500 employees, or 20 per cent of Mohalla Tech Pvt Ltd, the parent firm of ShareChat and Moj, were let go. ShareChat is also backed by Google and Twitter

Two co-founders of video-sharing platform ShareChat, Bhanu Pratap Singh and Farid Ahsan are stepping down form their management positions, according to an internal memo from the company's CEO Ankush Sachdeva on Wednesday, reported Bussines Standard. 

This comes a week after 500 employees, or 20 per cent of Mohalla Tech Pvt Ltd, the parent firm of ShareChat and Moj, were let go. ShareChat is also backed by Google and Twitter. 

“After nearly eight years of building ShareChat to unicorn status and beyond, Bhanu (Pratap Singh) and Farid (Ahsan) have chosen to step down from their active roles in the company. ShareChat would not be today the company it is, without their contributions,” a ShareChat spokesperson said.  

“They will continue to be a part of the ShareChat family with both Bhanu and Farid remaining on the board. In recent years, the company has built a strong leadership team and many of the responsibilities held by Bhanu and Farid will now rest with Manohar Singh Charan and Gaurav Bhatia who will lead the management and engineering roles respectively,” the spokesperson added.

The firm has currently a $5 billion market valuation and employs over 2,200 people. Temasek, Google, Tiger Global, Snap, Twitter, Lightspeed, SAIF Partners (now Elevation Capital), and Pawan Munjal and Ajay Shridhar Shriram are among the investors in ShareChat. The firm completed a multi-tranche fundraising round in June of last year, raising a total of $520 million at a $5 billion valuation. 

ShareChat added Google and Times Group as new investors in the last round. Temasek contributed $255 million once more. ShareChat secured $266 million in the first round of the round in December 2021 from Alkeon Capital, Temasek, HarbourVest, Moore Strategic Ventures, and India Quotient, the report said. 

India's largest indigenous social media company, ShareChat (Mohalla Tech Pvt Ltd), has more than 400 million MAUs (monthly active users) across all of its platforms. ShareChat was established in 2015 by Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Pratap Singh, and Farid Ahsan. Its portfolio of social media companies includes Moj and ShareChat App. 

Over 180 million monthly active users across the nation currently utilise the ShareChat App. Moj, which was introduced in July 2020, is the biggest short video platform in India, with close to 300 million people using the app each month to watch content.