After Trell & Mitron, Chingari Bags Fund From Foreign Entrepreneurs Brian Norgard, CPO of Tinder and French entrepreneur - Fabrice Grinda, founder of OLX, have invested an undisclosed amount in Chingari
By Debarghya Sil •
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Two days after Indian origin social media apps Trell and Mitron raised series A funds, Chingari—another short video-sharing platform which claims to cater to the needs of young Bharat—has raised an undisclosed amount of funding on Wednesday from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Brian Norgard, chief product producer (CPO) at Tinder and French entrepreneur, and Fabrice Grinda, founder of OLX.
The company will be utilizing the fresh capitals for product development, hire talent, and will try to enhance the camera features. The funding also comes on the heels of Chingari winning the #AtmaNirbharApp Challenge, the first-of-its-kind contest organized by the government of India. The app was voted the best in the social media category.
Chingari along with other Indian origins apps saw a sudden spike in downloads number and active users after the India government on Jun 29 banned 59 popular Chinese apps including TikTok and WeChat which enjoyed millions of active users in India on the pretext of national security and data theft. The sweeping move came days after the border tension between India and China escalated resulting in the death of 20 Indian soldiers.
Commenting on the investment, Sumit Ghosh, co-founder and chief executive officer of Chingari, said, "We are humbled that globally acclaimed entrepreneurs like Brian Norgard and Fabrice Grinda loved the vision of the Chingari team and invested into what we are building. We are absolutely delighted to have them onboard the Chingari rocket ship and look forward to learning from them the art of building and scaling global product companies."
"We've been impressed with the way Chingari has grown organically and in a very capital efficient manner so far. Chingari has been able to make its way into the hearts of the Indian people and the team is shipping upgrades at the speed like none we have seen so far. We are incredibly excited to partner with the team at Chingari," Grinda said.
Grinda, a super angel investor, has more than 200 investments in several big firms around the world, including Alibaba Group, Airbnb, Beepi, FanDuel, Palantir and Windeln.
Post Chinese App Ban Mitron Witness Surge In Downloads
Launched in 2018, Chingari allows its users to download and upload videos, chat with friends, interact with new people, share content, browse through feed, and much more. Users can get creative with WhatsApp status, videos, audio clips, GIF stickers and photos, and become popular on Chingari. The platform gives points to its content creators and these points can be redeemed for money, making the platform truly rewarding.
Before the ban, Chingari recorded 3 million downloads. However, after the Chinese app ban, Chingari witnessed a significant rise in download numbers. The app currently has over 25 million downloads, an 88 per cent rise. It currently has around 2-3 millions of daily active users.
Trell and Mitron on Monday raised $11.4 million and $5 million, respectively.
