Chingari, a homegrown short video app developed to rival Tik Tok, has raised $15 million (Rs 111 crore) in a Series A extension round led by Republic Capital. The investment round also saw the participation of investors such as OnMobile, JPIN Venture Catalysts, Hill Harbour, Angellist, Venture Collective, and family offices.
The new investment will go towards technology, launching new features and hiring artificial intelligence (AI) experts to enhance user experience.
Chingari is developing live-streaming, social commerce and an audio chat which will help creators boost their engagement rates and open up branding collaborations.
The company will also invest in strengthening the brand’s reach in Tier-III and IV markets. The focus will be on grooming content creators in regional languages.
“This new funding will further strengthen our position and help us deliver an immersive user experience for our community,” said Sumit Ghosh, Co-founder and CEO, Chingari, in a statement.
The company aims to expand its userbase to over 200 million by the end of 2022. Currently, Chingari boasts of 110 million downloads and 35 million monthly active users.
The company has also evolved to focus on creator monetisation by using cryptocurrency and nonfungible tokens (NFTs).
In October, Chingari raised $19 million in crypto from venture funds and individuals including, RepublicCrypto, SolanaCapital and US crypto exchange Kraken. The funds were utilised to launch crypto token $GARI.
Now Chingari’s first-ever homegrown token, $GARI has made its debut on six exchanges simultaneously including Huobi Global, FTX, KuCoin, Gate.io, OKEx and MEXC Global.
Ghosh said in a statement, “The various crypto trading platforms have joined hands with Chingari owing to the kind of user market that the platform has created. GARI Token (GARI) has become India’s first social crypto-token and we aim at providing beneficial investment options to the Chingari users through the tokens which can be monetised easily.”
Visit Chingari here
