India’s Twitter Rival Koo Shuts Down After Acquisition Talks With Dailyhunt Fail

Indian microblogging platform Koo, an alternative to X (formerly Twitter), is shutting down its service after prolonged acquisition talks fell through, its founders Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka said in a LinkedIn post.

The four-year-old startup’s decision to wind up was triggered after its likely acquisition by online media firm Dailyhunt failed. Despite raising over $50 Mn from prominent investors like Tiger Global, Accel, 3one4 Capital, Kalaari Capital and Blume Ventures, Koo struggled to expand its user base and generate revenue over the past year.

“Here’s the final pause from our end. Our partnership talks fell through and we will be discontinuing our service to the public. We explored partnerships with multiple larger internet companies, conglomerates and media houses but these talks didn’t yield the outcome we wanted,” the cofounders said in the post.

“Most of them didn’t want to deal with user generated content and the wild nature of a social media company. A couple of them changed priority almost close to signing. While we would’ve liked to keep the app running, the cost of technology services to keep a social media app running is high and we’ve had to take this tough decision,” it added

Founded in 2020 by Radhakrishna and Bidawatka, Koo App is a Bengaluru-based company specialising in the media and entertainment sector. It is an India-based social media platform that allows users to share audio and video content.

With an operating income of only INR 14 Lakh and a staggering INR 197 Cr loss in FY22, the company struggled to establish a viable revenue model and heavily relied on burning cash to acquire new users. The startup has thus far not filed its audited FY23 financials.

Koo halted all customer acquisition campaigns from June 2022, leading to a decline in active users. The number of active users plummeted from 7.2 Mn in June 2023 to a mere 2.7 Mn, marking a 62% drop in the past nine months, according to data sourced from Data.ai.

Over the past year, the company has been seeking a strategic partner and exploring acquisition options. Despite months-long discussions, including potential acquihire deals, the situation took a negative turn. 

Besides, in April, Inc42 reported that Koo ceased salary payments to all its employees starting from April 2024, citing financial constraints. Several Koo employees had expressed concerns about the halted salaries, the company confirmed to an email query by Inc42.