Google in talks with ShareChat as latter scouts for $150-200 million

BENGALURU|MUMBAI: Google is in talks with ShareChat for investing in the Bengaluru-based social media firm, two people familiar with the matter told ET. ShareChat is looking to raise $150-200 million and is holding discussions with investors and technology companies, as it prepares to battle it out with over a dozen rivals to fill the gap left by banned Chinese apps, including TikTok and Helo. Google is not the only firm that has held discussions with ShareChat, which counts microblogging platform Twitter as one of its investors. In an interview with ET last week, ShareChat chief executive Ankush Sachdeva said the company is seeing a lot of inbound interest and it is talking to everyone, including all the global players. “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,” Sachdeva told ET. In July, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced a $10 billion India Digitisation Fund, most of which will be invested in Indian companies over the next five to seven years.