Short video app Chingari lays off 20% of its workforce

Chingari was founded in 2018 by Salvi, Kothari, Sumit Ghish, and Biswatma Nayak.

Short video app Chingari has laid off 20 percent of its workforce amid organisational restructuring. This comes less than four months after the startup raised undisclosed equity investment from L1 blockchain company Aptos Labs and discussed its global hiring and expansion plans, shedding light on the grappling businesses of short video apps.

Around 50 people of its team of 250 employees got laid off in Chingari's attempt to boost long-term productivity and profitability, the company confirmed Moneycontrol. This happened across teams including engineering, marketing, customer support, product to name a few.

Chingari’s co-founder Aditya Kothari had quit the company in May this year.

Prior to this, Chingari’s peers Moj's parent company, Mohalla Tech, had laid off about 115 people after closing its fantasy gaming vertical and Josh's parent company, VerSe Innovation, laid off 150 people while announcing company-wide pay cuts for employees earning more than Rs 10 lakh per year.

“We deeply regret the need for these workforce reductions of 20% as a part of Chingari's organisational restructuring. These were one of the toughest decisions for our management and we understand the impact they have on our employees. We are appreciative of their contributions and commitment to Chingari,” a company spokesperson said. Inc42 reported the development first.

'Employee support'

The spokesperson added that affected employees will be offered a severance package equal to two months' salary to assist them during this transition. Employees will be getting support through career counselling and job placement assistance. “Additionally, in order to prioritise the affected employees' health during this trying time, we will make sure they have three more months of health insurance coverage,” the spokesperson said.

“Our priorities continue to be streamlining processes, boosting productivity, and matching resources to our long-term growth goals,” the spokesperson added.

As of December, co-founder and COO Deepak Salvi had told Moneycontrol that the startup was focusing on expanding and launching its apps across Europe, Latin America and Africa. It had already released its apps in local languages in the UAE, Indonesia, Turkey, and parts of the US.

Chingari was looking to hire 400-500 people locally in these markets and India.

Chingari was founded in 2018 by Salvi, Kothari, Sumit Ghish, and Biswatma Nayak.