Indian social media platform ShareChat has reached a deal to acquire the Times Internet-owned video platform MX TakaTak in a $700-million cash-and-stock deal.

According to reports, 180 employees of MX TakaTak will join Mohalla Tech, the parent company of ShareChat, which has over 2,000 employees with the acquisition. MX TakaTak will be rebranded in roughly six months and the target for the closure of the deal is the end of the month.

After TikTok was banned, Mohalla Tech launched a short-video sharing app named Moj, which has over time garnered 160 million users.

Moj and MX TakaTak together will have a combined active user base of over 300 million.  

This acquisition comes at a time when the short-video industry is gaining traction. Both MX TakaTak and Moj have seen significant growth over the last two years.

Founded in 2015 by Ankush Sachdeva, Farid Ahsan and Bhanu Singh, ShareChat is one of the early players in regional language content.