Exclusive: Weeks After Cofounder’s Exit, Short-Video App Chingari Lays Off 20% Workforce

There seems to be no end to layoffs in the Indian startup ecosystem, as short-video app Chingari has now fired 20% of its workforce.  

According to its LinkedIn page, Chingari has around 240 employees, which means it has laid off around 48 employees. 

The development comes weeks after Chingari cofounder Aditya Kothari quit the startup.

The impacted employees were informed about the layoffs by the HR team during one-on-one interactions on Monday (June 19), sources told Inc42, adding that the employees working at Mumbai and Bengaluru offices of the startup were impacted. 

While employees across teams lost their jobs, the tech team was impacted the most, the sources added.

Chingari has offered a two-month salary as severance pay to the affected employees and extended their health insurance by three months. 

The startup confirmed the development with Inc42. A spokesperson of Chingari said in a statement, “We deeply regret the need for these workforce reductions of 20% as a part of Chingari’s organisational restructuring. These were one of the toughest decisions for our management and we understand the impact they have on our employees. We are appreciative of their contributions and commitment to Chingari.”

Chingari, founded in 2018 by Aditya Kothari, Biswatma Nayak, Deepak Salvi, and Ghosh, is an on-chain social app that enables users to upload videos, interact with friends, and share and browse content. 

Chingari also has a native cryptocurrency token, GARI. The app enables short-form video creators to monetise their content on the blockchain.

The Chingari app is currently available in India, the UAE, Indonesia, Turkey and the US. 

The layoffs at Chingari come at a time when both cryptocurrency and short-video apps are struggling. 

The restructuring exercise also comes four months after Chingari bagged an undisclosed amount of funding from Aptos. The startup then said it would use the fresh funds for user growth, product development, global expansion, and to ramp up its engineering team. It needs to be highlighted that as per media reports, the startup was eyeing entering the unicorn club and was in talks to raise much more capital than what it actually raised. 

In October 2021, Chingari raised $19 Mn in an extended Series A token-based round led by Republic Crypto, Galaxy Digital, Alameda Research, and Solana Capital. However nine months later, GARI slumped over 80%. At the time of filing this story, Gari was trading at $0.037, as per Crypto.com. 

Chingari’s net loss widened 225% to INR 139.4 Cr in FY22 from INR 42.8 Cr in FY21. Meanwhile, total income rose 135X to INR 49.4 Cr from INR 36 Lakh in FY21. 

With the layoffs, Chingari has joined the long-list of Indian startups which have fired employees since last year amid the ongoing funding winter. As per Inc42’s layoff tracker, Indian startups have laid off over 27,000 employees since 2022.

Earlier today, it was reported that BYJU’S is undertaking another round of layoffs, which could see over 1,000 employees losing their jobs.