Chinese technology giant Tencent quietly backed the Indian social media start-up ShareChat, investing $225m via two European entities, despite harsh rules restricting new Chinese investment into Indian companies.

Regulatory filings show that ShareChat, which recently raised $501m from investors including Tiger Global and Snap to grow its TikTok competitor Moj, received nearly half of that sum in convertible debt from two Amsterdam-based companies called Zennis Capital BV and Hlodyn BV.

Both companies were registered in February of this year and list the same two directors on their public records — Jingsi He, who is the head of finance for Tencent Europe, and Constant Pieter van der Merwe, who is currently senior counsel for Tencent in Europe.