[Funding alert] Chingari raises $13M in a round led by OnMobile

Homegrown short-form video app Chingari has raised $13 million in an investment round led by OnMobile, the telecom technology company focused on mobile entertainment.

The other investors who participated in the round include Republic Labs US, Astarc Ventures, White Star Capital, India TV (Rajat Sharma), JPIN Venture Catalysts Ltd, ProfitBoard Ventures, Raghunandan G of Zolve (Co-Founder of TaxiForSure), and some large family office funds from the UK.

In 2020, Chingari had raised $1.4 million from several angel investors.

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Chingari plans to use this capital to enhance its content portfolio, hire talent, and accelerate its growing user base.

As part of this funding round, OnMobile will integrate and distribute its direct-to-consumer gaming platform, ONMO, on the Chingari app and collaborate on other mobile product integrations.

Chingari also expects to grow its user base from the current level of 56 million to over 100 million with this funding round.

On the funding received, Sumit Ghosh, Co-founder & CEO of Chingari, said,

“We could not have hoped for a better partner than OnMobile to help Chingari embody its vision and become a content super media app for Bharat, and help engage a billion Indians. With our visions aligned, this partnership promises to be a winning collaboration."

On the investment, François-Charles Sirois, Executive Chairman of OnMobile, said, "We are very excited about this investment and partnership bringing millions of users to the new ONMO gaming service while providing immediate business value and increased user reach for both companies.”

The Chingari app was launched in 2018 and started as short-form video app. It has now positioned itself as a content media super app for Bharat which also includes social video commerce.

Ever since the ban of TikTok app in June 2020, there has been increased number of homegrown players who have got into the short video segment like Josh from DailyHunt, InMobi Roposo, Mitron, Bolo Indya among others.