invezz.com
Chingari, a leading social platform in India for sharing short videos that boasts more than 78 million downloads, closed a funding round of more than $19 million, Invezz learned from a press release.
The funds were raised through tens of venture funds and individual investors, such as Galaxy Digital, Republic Crypto, Solana (SOL/USD) Capital, Alameda Research, Kraken, Valor Equity Partners, Coinfund, and more.
Chingari fills the void left by TikTok
After TikTok was banned in India, apps like Chingari and Trell began working to fill the void. In six months, the number of Chingari users rose from 100,000 to 50 million. The Indian government conferred the ‘App Innovation Challenge’ award upon the platform.
GARI tokens powered by Solana
The funds participating in the funding round were enthusiastic about $GARI token developments and the app’s surge in popularity. GARI tokens are powered by the high performance Solana blockchain, making Chingari the first major web2 company to integrate web3.
Andrew Durgee, Managing Partner at Republic, stated:
At Republic, we believe social tokens are an essential piece of the crypto community and creator economy. Chingari shares this vision and has taken innovative steps to bring that vision to life. Their creators and users will now be able to more truly monetize their own engagements and experiences.
Sumit Ghosh, CEO of Chingari, added:
The future of a platform lies in its creators. On one side, we have an immense talent pool that needs to be explored, and rewarded with an ethical amount of monetization. On the other side, while Crypto experiences a rapid expansion in India, $GARI is poised to make it mainstream. We are infusing the two, through robust strategies and incorporation of the most-promising industry advances. The result of this infusion is Social Tokens as the future of community platforms for Creator Monetization. It is reaching new milestones as we speak.
Coming up for Chingari: live blockchain testing and integration beta
In the near future, Chingari plans to test the blockchain live and a GARI token sale. Chingari Integration beta is also coming up. GARI lets creators establish their own ecommerce space that includes their NFT works, physical merchandise, and fans’ ability to fund their favorite artists.