ShareChat Parent's FY26 Net Loss Widens 79% to ₹1,978.4 Cr

Mohalla Tech, parent of ShareChat and Moj, posted a consolidated net loss of ₹1,978.4 Cr for the fiscal year ended March 2026, up 78.5% year over year. The loss widened even as operating revenue rose 40.4% to ₹1,016.3 Cr from ₹723.4 Cr in FY25.

Management attributed the wider bottom-line gap to share-based payment expenses, foreign exchange losses and finance costs. Total expenses surged 65.6% to ₹3,083 Cr from ₹1,862.1 Cr a year earlier. On the earnings call, management said the reported loss was largely driven by non-cash and notional accounting items, including provisions for interest on hybrid debt instruments, unrealised forex losses and ESOP costs.

Operating performance moved in the opposite direction. The company narrowed its EBITDA loss by 58% year over year to ₹91 Cr in FY26, according to management claims. It recorded its first EBITDA-positive quarter in Q1 FY27, with an EBITDA profit of ₹9.5 Cr and a 0.3% margin. The margin improved to over 2% in Q2 FY27, the management said.

What drove the revenue growth?

The FY26 top line was led by the launch of QuickTV, a subscription-based microdrama platform introduced in February 2025. The subscription vertical, which combines QuickTV with Moj's Moj+ and Moj Blue offerings, generated ₹292.7 Cr in FY26, close to 30% of total revenue.

Advertising moved the other way. Ad revenue fell 13% year over year to ₹251.8 Cr as real money gaming advertisers stopped promotional spends following the RMG ban. The company had diversified toward FMCG and mid-market advertisers and offset the anticipated dent. Livestreaming revenue grew almost 9% to ₹471.8 Cr, drawn from paying users on both ShareChat and Moj.

QuickTV has crossed 5 Cr downloads on the Google Play Store since launch. Microdrama adoption picked up pace in the Indian market early in FY26, prompting Mohalla Tech to shift from its decade-long reliance on advertising and livestreaming.

How much did costs climb?

• Employee benefits: Expenses more than doubled to ₹959.5 Cr from ₹445.8 Cr. Share-based payments climbed 302% to ₹739 Cr from ₹183.8 Cr, after an expanded ESOP pool and additional grants to key employees.
• Foreign exchange: Non-cash forex expenses rose more than fourfold to ₹566.9 Cr from ₹128 Cr, driven by rupee-dollar depreciation. Unrealised losses accounted for ₹566 Cr.
• Business development: Costs covering marketing, promotions and customer acquisition surged 7.7x to ₹334.8 Cr from ₹43.4 Cr.

Customer acquisition economics explain part of that surge. Mohalla Tech said acquiring a user on the free platform Moj costs around ₹14-15 per download, while acquiring a paying QuickTV subscriber costs hundreds of rupees given the newer brand and subscription paywall. Competing subscription platforms could be spending upwards of ₹1,000 per subscriber, the company claimed.

What is the FY27 outlook?

For FY27, Mohalla Tech targets an EBITDA profit of ₹25 Cr, including at least ₹15 Cr in the second half. The company reported roughly ₹740 Cr in revenue in the first half of FY27. Its Q2 FY27 annualised revenue run rate reached approximately ₹1,500 Cr. It did not disclose bottom-line performance for the September half.

The company expects both SVOD and AVOD to power its next phase of growth. Advertising is projected to grow 40% year over year in FY27, with AVOD revenue expected to surpass ₹350 Cr; the stream touched ₹160 Cr in the first half. Management shared no SVOD projections. It believes most Indian internet users are unlikely to pay for microdrama subscriptions, with paying users for the format expected to stay below 100 Mn even as the market matures.

Who else is chasing the format?

Competition is intensifying. EloElo Group, parent of microdrama platform Story TV, recently raised $80 Mn, around ₹756 Cr, in a Series C round led by Hornbill Capital and NBCUniversal. Story TV holds more than 5,000 microdramas across six languages, and EloElo claims over 40 Mn monthly active users. Startups such as Kuku TV, Flick TV, ReelSaga and Chai Shots compete alongside JioHotstar's Tadka, Zee Entertainment's Bullet and Amazon MX Player's MX Fatafat.

With acquisition costs for paying subscribers running into the hundreds of rupees and management itself projecting a ceiling on India's paying base, Mohalla Tech's FY27 EBITDA target now rests on advertising recovery outpacing the cost of converting free viewers into revenue.