Homegrown video making app Chingari is in advanced talks with venture capital firms to raise $10 million in Series A round of funding, according to a top executive of the company.
"This month is the timeline (to close the round)... have a term sheet,” Sumit Ghosh, co-founder and chief product officer of the two-year-old startup told Moneycontrol in an interaction. However, he didn't disclose the names of investors.
The development happens at a time when younger rival Mitron TV has grabbed around $2.5 million in early rounds of funding from multiple investors including 3one4 Capital and Nexus Venture Partners.
While the first round of Rs 2 crore was announced by the company earlier this month. Entrackr reported their next round of around $1.5-2 million from Nexus and other investors.
Chingari which claims to have 22 million downloads has seen unprecedented growth following the ban on Chinese app TikTok in India and the anti-China sentiment in the country.
Chingari was developed by Ghosh, a Chhattisgarh-based developer in 2018.
Recently, even industrialist Anand Mahindra tweeted about the app. "I hadn’t ever downloaded TikTok, but I have just downloaded Chingari... More power to you..." the chairman of Mahindra Group tweeted on June 28.
Even as India is taking every step to screen Chinese investments following the death of Indian soldiers in Galwan Valley, TikTok is contemplating ways to gain back the market.
According to reports, TikTok owner ByteDance is considering corporate restructuring including shifting the headquarters of the video-sharing app operations out of China, as the appearance of close association with China is hurting business.
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