ShareChat, the video-sharing platform, has reportedly laid off around 40 employees, which amounts to approximately five percent of its workforce. The company is implementing these layoffs as part of a performance improvement plan (PIP) to reduce costs and achieve profitability.
ShareChat currently has about 800 employees, down from its peak of 2,700. A ShareChat spokesperson commented on the layoffs, stating that they account for less than five percent of the workforce. The spokesperson also mentioned that there are open positions at the company, with the company continuing to seek high-quality talent across different functions.
In addition to the layoffs, ShareChat has secured an additional $16 million in debt financing through convertible debentures, bringing the total size of its previous debt to about $65 million. The latest funding comes from EDBI, a Singapore-based fund that also invests in home design and renovation platform Livspace.
Over the past year, Mohalla Tech, the parent company of ShareChat and short video platform Moj, has been working to reduce operating costs due to tough competition from global rivals like Instagram and YouTube and a challenging funding environment.
The additional funds will be used to invest further in ShareChat’s advertising technology and expand its consumer transactions business by developing new monetization features for its creator ecosystem. The company claims that ShareChat has been operationally profitable for several months, while the Moj app is approaching break-even.
