Indian video sharing platform Chingari is preparing to launch its own blockchain network and social token.
Chingari completed a $19 million funding round to start the mainnet and completed a token sale of Solana-based GARI tokens in November, the company said Friday.
Chingari co-founder and CEO Sumit Ghosh said the token sale is scheduled for November 2, with the launch of the major integration and implementation expected to begin at the end of that month.
Together with major blockchain investors such as Republic Crypto and Galaxy Digital Investments firm Mike Novogratz, the new fundraising includes more than 30 venture capital funds and individual investors, including Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research, Solana Capital and Kraken cryptocurrency exchange.
Ghosh said the $19 million in funding was completed by raising GARI tokens in a preliminary round and a closed round. These increases follow two equity rounds in which Chingari raised $1.3 million in 2020 and $13 million in April 2021.
According to Gosh, the Chingari blockchain platform will allow users to receive tokens to create or display content. “What Axie Infinity has done for games, we’re going to do for social media,” he said.
“The idea that many people can make a small amount of money and improve by participating on a social platform is a very powerful one, and Chingari wants to make that vision possible,” the leader added.
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Since India banned TikTok earlier this year, a number of companies, including Chingari, have tried to fill the void left by short video sharing apps in the Indian subcontinent. Since the ban, Chingari claims the user base has grown from 100,000 to 50 million in six months.
Social media companies are increasingly moving into the crypto industry, and in late September, Chinese social media giant TikTok announced its first attack on the non-financial token industry. Previously, Twitter allowed its users to tip each other using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC).
