Google in talks with Sharechat as latter eyes $200 mn fundraise: Report

Google is in early talks with ShareChat for investing in the Indian content-sharing platform, Economic Times reported, quoting sources.

According to the report, the Bengaluru-based firm is looking to raise up to $200 million (approximately Rs 1,496 crore), which could value the company at over $1 billion.

The discussions come as Indian apps including ShareChat are seeing a popularity surge after New Delhi in June banned Chinese origin app, ByteDance's TikTok, following a border clash between the two countries.

"A process is on to raise funds. We have reached out to funds as well as strategic investors like Google. The talks are still at a preliminary stage and will take some time to conclude. As Chinese tech applications are banned, we expect larger investor traction for ShareChat, which directly competes with ByteDance's Helo,” sources told the publication.

ShareChat allows users to post content in 15 Indian languages and after TikTok was banned, it launched a similar short-video sharing app named Moj which has clocked up more than 50 million downloads so far.

READ: Microsoft may invest about $100 million in ShareChat: Report

"Given how things have changed, especially after the ban, ShareChat benefits a lot in terms of time spent, in terms of revenue, in terms of daily active users. We are suddenly a lot more valuable than our previously thought valuation. We have got a lot of inbound interest and we are talking to everyone, including all the global players," ShareChat Chief Executive Ankush Sachdeva had told the publication last week in an interview.

Earlier this month, Reuters had reported that ShareChat was in early-stage talks with US-based Sequoia Capital and some other investors to raise up to $200 million, which could value the company at over $1 billion.

In another report, Mint said that technology giant Microsoft was also in talks with Indian-origin ShareChat for an investment of $100 million, quoting sources.

ShareChat appointed JPMorgan to advise on the new fundraising which it expects to complete before the end of the year, sources told Reuters news agency.

READ: Google pledges Rs 75,000 crore for India Digitisation Fund

In July, Google CEO Sundar Pichai had announced that the company will be investing $10 billion (approximately Rs 75,000 crore) for the Digitisation India project over the next five to seven years.

The social media firm, in which last year Twitter also invested an undisclosed amount, has about 140 million (14 crore) monthly active users in India.

(With agency inputs)