Exclusive: ShareChat Launches Social Media App ‘Vibely’ With Private Calling Feature

Mohalla Tech Private Limited, the parent of social media platform ShareChat and short video app Moj, has launched a social media app ‘Vibely’ to connect with new users, sources told Inc42.

The app also has a private calling feature which allows users to call other app users. The new app, launched last week, also allows users to make in-app purchases to buy gifts, the sources added.

It is pertinent to note that ShareChat and Moj already offer the audio calling feature. However, the sources said that the idea behind launching Vibely was to have a dedicated app for audio calling feature. 

“If someone wants to just have a conversation, why should he/ she have to go through several posts and notifications on ShareChat/ Moj,” one of the sources said. 

The launch of the new app is part of the efforts of Mohalla Tech to cut down its losses by shoring up revenue. 

While ShareChat is yet to file its financial statements for FY24, the sources said that it is likely to report a revenue of INR 700 Cr as against INR 540 Cr in FY23. Meanwhile, its net loss is expected to more than halve to INR 1,800 Cr from INR 4,064 Cr in FY23.

Its adjusted EBITDA loss is expected to come down to INR 800 Cr in FY24 from INR 2,372 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Meanwhile, the sources also said that ShareChat has turned EBITDA positive as of September 2024.

The startup declined to comment on Inc42’s queries on the launch of Vibely and its financials for FY24.

The development comes almost a couple of months after ShareChat raised $16 Mn debt from Singapore-based fund EDBI, expanding the size of its previous debt round to $65 Mn. 

In April this year, Inc42 exclusively reported about ShareChat raising $49 Mn via convertible debentures in a funding round from its existing investors Lightspeed, Temasek, Alkeon Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures, HarbourVest, among others.

Founded in 2015 by Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Singh, and Farid Ahsan, Mohalla Tech claims to have 325 Mn monthly active users across all its platforms. Of these, ShareChat claims to have over 180 Mn monthly active users. 

In 2022, Mohalla Tech acquired another short video platform MX TakaTak from Times Internet and integrated it with Moj, which it launched in July 2020. The deal was pegged at around $600 Mn. Earlier this year, Inc42 reported about the struggles of Moj and the decline in its key metrics.

It also needs to be highlighted that the startup’s two cofounders – Bhanu Pratap Singh and Farid Ahsan – resigned last year. Following this, they founded a robotics startup General Autonomy and raised $3 Mn seed funding in November last year from venture capital firms India Quotient and Elevation Capital.

Like many other startups, Mohalla Tech has been hit hard by the ongoing funding winter, forcing it to take cost-cutting measures. The startup laid off around 800 employees in three layoff exercises last year and also pulled the plug on its fantasy app platform Jeet11 and live commerce business. Its rising losses made matters worse. 

The startup has raised over a billion dollars in funding so far and is backed by marquee investors like Google, Temasek, Moore Strategic Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Tiger Global, Twitter among others.