ShareChat lays off 5% of employees, shuts fantasy gaming vertical Jeet11

“We can confirm that we are ceasing operations of Jeet11 and have reorganised some of our functions, which meant movement of this talent within teams and a few employee exits… We continue to focus on robust growth and hiring across various functions and roles as per our plans,” a company spokesperson said.

In June,
ShareChat had announced a fundraise of $520 million from Google, Times Group and Temasek via multiple tranches. The round helped the company hit a valuation of $5 billion.

The funding followed ShareChat parent Mohalla Tech’s acquisition of MX Media-backed MX TakaTak . The acquisition resulted in a combined entity, Moj and MX TakaTak, comprising 100 million creators and over 300 monthly active users. Moj is ShareChat’s short-video app.
Launched in 2020, Jeet11 was ShareChat’s answer to Dream11 which, like ShareChat, is backed by Tiger Global. Several states in India continue to maintain a ban on betting apps, putting the likes of Dream11 and Mobile Premier League in a legal quagmire. Startups have said that fantasy games are more about decisive strategy than luck.

In 2017, the Punjab High Court ruled that fantasy sports are a game of skill and not chance, and this was upheld by the Supreme Court.

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