The social media start-up serves as India’s homegrown short-form video app; progressing onwards from the raise, the company is set to scale as a steady disruptor to its Chinese equivalent – TikTok. Supported by Bollywood royalty Salman Khan, the raise has garnered international support, with key backers JPIN VCATS and their UK family offices’ network oversubscribing the round to $1.2 million. The company states that the investment will allow Chingari to accelerate its growth from 56 million users to over 100 million users. JPIN VCATS’ investment alongside other lead investor OnMobile, will integrate and distribute the mobile entertainment specialist’s gaming platform on the Chingari app, and collaborate on other product integrations. Chingari will use the funds to enhance its content portfolio, hire top talent and accelerate its growing user base to over 100 million subscribers. Sumit Ghosh, CEO of Chingari, said: Other investors who participated in this round include Republic Labs US, Astarc Ventures, White Star Capital, India Tv (Rajat Sharma), ProfitBoard Ventures, Raghunandan G of Zolve (Co-Founder, Taxi4sure), and some large family office funds from the UK from the JPIN VCATS network. Earlier last year Chingari had raised $1.4 million from a series of Angels, including Jasminder Gulati, FJ Labs (Fabrice Grinda), Angelist, Utsav Somani’s iSeed, Village Global, and Blume Founders Fund.
