Short video app Chingari on February 9 announced that Aptos Labs has made an undisclosed equity investment into the company ahead of the startup’s global expansion and hiring plans.
The fresh capital will be utilised for customer acquisition, product development, ramping up engineering and global expansion, the startup said. Aptos Labs which operates Aptos Network and blockchain will host Chingari’s upgraded application to be launched in the second quarter of 2023. At present, the app works on Solana blockchain with over 2.3 million wallet users.
Aptos Labs is a Layer 1 (L1) blockchain offering base infrastructure to build on. It is backed by prominent investors including a16z, Jump Crypto, Binance Labs, Dragonfly, PayPal Ventures, and Coinbase Ventures.
Chingari which is already present in India, UAE, Indonesia, Turkey and the US, will be launching its apps in vernacular languages across Latin America, Africa, and Europe, Deepak Salvi, co-founder and COO of Chingari, told Moneycontrol in December. They also plan to hire about 400-500 people globally.
This funding is a part of a larger upcoming rounds, a source in the know told Moneycontrol.
Chingari generated revenue of $6.4 million in FY22 and $700k in January 2023. The app, which offers Gari crypto token, said it has over 170 million users across its markets and is available in 15 languages.
Sumit Ghosh, CEO & Co-Founder, Chingari said, “Aptos Labs comes with immense experience and we will leverage their expertise in building and scaling social media platforms. The partnership with Aptos Labs will pave the way for a strong foundation & 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.”
Mo Shaikh, CEO & Co-Founder, Aptos added, “In a world with countless platforms and disparate communities, it’s impossible for creators to own and manage their content and continue to grow and retain their followers. The team at Chingari has developed new ways for creators to interact with users, and we look forward to seeing their team continue to innovate.”
Shaikh added, “Chingari was looking for the speed, safety and scalability of the Aptos network to support their millions of users - and to onboard millions more in the future."
