TikTok rival Chingari in talks to raise $10 million

Indian-origin short video sharing app 'Chingari', which is touted as the desi alternative to now banned Tiktok, is reportedly in talks with venture capital firms to raise $10 million in Series A round of funding.

Sumit Ghosh, co-founder and chief product officer of the 'Chingari' app, said the fund raising will be completed by end of this month. He, however, didn't reveal the names of investors.

"This month is the timeline (to close the round)... have a term sheet," Sumit Ghosh told Moneycontrol.

Also Read: Indian-origin app 'Chingari' takes on TikTok; 5 lakh downloads in 10 days

Earlier this month, rival Mitron raised around $2.5 million in early rounds of funding from venture capital firm including 3one4 Capital, LetsVenture syndicate, Nexus Venture Partners and other investors.

These investments come after the Indian government banned 59 Chinese apps, including ByteDance-owned TikTok. There has been a sudden incline and motivation amongst Indians to move towards the homegrown ecosystem, and download Indian apps.

Also Read: Ban on TikTok, other Chinese apps gives India's 'Chingari' fresh hope; 5 lakh downloads in 72 hours

Homegrown video making app Chingari, which was released on Google Play in 2018, claims to have crossed 22 million downloads. The video sharing app has gathered steam on Google Playstore and Apple AppStore in the last few weeks after the ban of Chinese app TikTok in India amid India-China standoff at the border.

Chingari app, which is available in nine regional languages along with English and Hindi, is gaining popularity with many directly comparing the app to TikTok.

Also Read: Indian apps like Chingari, Khabri gain from TikTok ban, have a long way to go yet

Recently, Mahindra group Chairman Anand Mahindra and Principal Economic Advisor Sanjeev Sanyal in their tweets endorsed this desi social media app. "I hadn't ever downloaded TikTok, but I have just downloaded Chingari... More power to you..." Anand Mahindra tweeted on June 28.

By Chitranjan Kumar