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Bengaluru-based short video app Chingari recently raised $15 million in its Series A extension round from Republic Capital, Onmobile, JPIN Venture Catalysts, Hill Harbour, and others.   

Sumit Ghosh, Co-founder and CEO, Chinagri, said the startup will use the capital to increase its tech team, doubling down on crypto, machine learning, etc. 

Recently, the short video app forayed into the cryptocurrency space and launched its crypto token — $GARI — on 12 different exchanges, including some of the top global exchanges such as HUObi Global, OKEx, KuCoin, etc.

“The first day’s trade volume was around $100 million, so the token is doing well. We are about to integrate it on the app and release it around the end of this month,” he said.

Additionally, in 2022, the startup aims to integrate the token into various features of the Chingari app. 

Primarily, Chingari’s core product is short video entertainment, where users consume byte-size content. Unlike other players, the startup does not monetise using ads. It will use Web3.0 business models like NFTs to earn its revenue.

“Every video you upload on Chingari will table as an NFT on Solana. So, all the creators on Chingari have an opportunity to own their content,” he said. 

Sumit shared that for every transaction on the platform using $GARI tokens, Chingari will take up 5 percent of that as part of its revenue.

“By the end of this year, we just need a couple of million crypto users on the Chingari app actively buying, selling, and trading these NFTs, and we project $10-20 million monthly revenue from just these users,” Sumit added. 

Chingari aims to end 2022 with $100 million in revenue, and expects the monetisation to start by the end of the first quarter of 2022.

Moreover, Chingari also tracks average downloads, retention, and usage of $GARI within the app. 

Besides launching the NFT marketplace, which has been in its pipeline for some time, Chingari also plans to launch Clubhouse-like audio room features, but with the crypto aspect and creator economy features.