Short-Video App Chingari Bags Funding From Aptos Labs To Enter New Markets

Short-video app Chingari has received equity funding from Aptos Labs, the company behind the launch of Layer 1 blockchain Aptos. However, the Bengaluru-based startup didn’t disclose the funding raised.

Chingari said it will use the fresh funds for user growth, product development, global expansion, and to ramp up its engineering team.

The Chingari app is currently available in India, the UAE, Indonesia, Turkey and the US. “The firm plans to launch in more emerging and strategic markets in the near future,” it said in a statement.

Following the fundraise, Chingari plans to launch an upgraded app on the Aptos Network by the second quarter of 2023.

Aptos Labs is backed by marquee investors like a16z, Jump Crypto, Binance Labs, Dragonfly, PayPal Ventures, and Coinbase Ventures.

“The partnership with Aptos Labs will pave the way for a strong foundation and case study in the Indian Web3 ecosystem prior to expanding towards newer markets in the near future. This is a significant partnership that Chingari will forge to onboard the first one billion on-chain users,” Chingari CEO and cofounder Sumit Ghosh said. 

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 other people, as well as share and browse content. 

The short-video app also allows content creators to earn money. It provides them with points that can be redeemed for money.

The fundraise comes over a year after Chingari secured $15 Mn in a funding round led by Republic Capital. Onmobile, JPIN Venture Catalysts and Hill Harbour also participated in the round.

In October 2021, it introduced a crypto token named $GARI and a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace. $GARI is the native token of Chingari and enables short-form video creators to monetise their content on the blockchain.

Chingari claims that it has a base of over 170 Mn users and supports over 15 languages on the app. It generated a revenue of $700K in January 2023 and $6.4 Mn in the financial year 2021-22. 

In India, it competes with the likes of Mitron, Josh and Roposo. 

According to a Statista report, the country’s digital content media market is pegged at $4.68 Bn in 2023. The industry is expected to grow to $6.14 Bn by 2027,  expanding at a CAGR of 7.00% during 2023-27.