Chingari will soon receive Series A funding, co-founder Sumit Ghosh confirms

Chingari co-founder Sumit Ghosh on Tuesday said that the company will soon raise Series A funding. Without divulging details of the deal, Ghosh said that the funding will come from a global VC. A formal announcement is expected to be made later this month.

Bengaluru-based Chingari is one of the Indian platforms that has recorded a massive surge in usage following the ban on TikTok and 58 other China-linked applications. Chingari is considered among the top Indian alternatives to the banned TikTok application.

Ghosh revealed that Chingari has approximately 5 million daily active users. He further said that the unprecedented surge in usage has prompted the company to make some changes to its roadmap.

Prior to the ban, the app had some 3.5 million downloads. A tweet from Anand Mahindra favouring Chingari over TikTok helped propel the downloads, he added. Now, the company has come up with a new strategy for execution of its plans.

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“…So, the earlier roadmap was let's say a six to nine months strategy, now that it has shot into a three-month strategy,” he said in an interview with Hindustan Times.

Chingari is also looking to bolster content creators ecosystem on its platform. Earlier this week, the company announced it will allow users to earn money based on their video views, and it is now planning to let music composers earn some revenue as well.

The company is now gearing up for a new app update, scheduled to roll out on Sunday. The update will bring a new interface along with various other improvements. Ghosh hinted that the interface will be very similar to TikTok’s.

He further said that the app will soon receive live streaming functionality. The app will also get new AR filters. These features will be available to both Android and iOS users.