ShareChat sheds jobs, shuts down fantasy sports app months after mega fundraise

Mohalla Tech, the parent company of homegrown social media platform ShareChat and short-video platform Moj, has laid off about 5 per cent of its workforce and shut down the fantasy gaming platform Jeet11.

“As a standard business practice, we periodically evaluate our strategies. We can confirm that we are ceasing operations of Jeet11 and have reorganized some of our functions, which meant movement of this talent within teams and a few employee exits. This process has impacted less than 5 per cent of our employees,” the company said in a statement.

The Bengaluru-based company employs over 2200 people across verticals, meaning the layoffs have affected well over 100 employees.

The layoffs and operation optimisation initiatives reflect an industry-wide trend where start-ups are moving towards strict cost control and operational efficiencies to extend their runway as far as possible to survive the funding winter and battle a looming recession.

Notably, the developments at ShareChat come just a little over five months after the company announced a funding round worth $255 million from a host of marquee investors including Google, Times Group, and Temasek. The multi-tranche funding round amounting to $520 million valued the company at $5 billion, making it one of the most valued start-ups in the country.

“We continue to focus on robust growth and hiring across various functions and roles as per our plans. To succeed as India’s fastest-growing social media company, we assess our strategy regularly and make necessary changes to achieve our vision,” the company’s statement said.

Layoffs have become rampant in the tech space, including the start-up ecosystem, which has been hit by a funding winter, owing to rising interest rates, tightening liquidity, and a slowdown in tech globally. Most start-up leaders reckon the tough macroeconomic environment could last for 12-18 months or even more.

Since the beginning of 2022, Indian start-ups have laid off over 16,000 employees as per industry estimates. In fact, Dailyhunt which operates in the similar domain as ShareChat, sacked 5 per cent of its 3,000 employees earlier this week. VerSe Innovation Pvt Ltd, the parent firm of Dailyhunt and short video app Josh, called it a “regular bi-annual performance management cycle” that will see exits across VerSe. The company had raised $805 million as part of a Series J funding round in April this year at a valuation of $5 billion.

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