ShareChat FY19 losses vault on higher expenses

Social media platform ShareChat widened its losses 12-fold to Rs 414.7 crore in financial year 2018-19 (FY19), according to its latest regulatory filings.The company had reported losses at Rs 33.8 crore in FY18. The higher losses are mainly on account of higher expenses.

Operated by Bengaluru based Mohalla Tech, ShareChat recorded a total expense of Rs 440.6 crore in FY19 versus Rs 35.5 crore in FY18. 

Though the losses widened, the company’s revenues jumped 15 times to Rs 25.8 crore against Rs 1.7 crore last fiscal. 

ShareChat claims to have around 60 million monthly active users across the country and is planning to expand its user base.

According to the filings, other expenses jumped to Rs 410 crore in FY19 when compared to the Rs 26.3 crore in FY18. 

In August, the company raised $100 million in a Series D round led by Twitter along with the participation of existing investors Shunwei Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, SAIF Capital, India Quotient and Morningside Venture Capital.

According to a statement issued by the company in August, the company has so far raised $224 million. 

ShareChat was founded in 2015 by Ankush Sachdeva, Farid Ahsan and Bhanu Pratap Singh. The company was recently in the news when it was forced to take down 31 pieces of content during general elections on Election Commission’s orders. According to its annual transparency report, the company received 41 legal notices from various law enforcement authorities across Indian states, which included user details and takedown requests.