Chingari Co-founder Aditya Kothari exits firm; Aptos update on the cards

Aditya Kothari, Co-founder of short video platform Chingari, said he exited the firm on Friday.

Kothari announced his departure from the firm in a series of tweets. "This journey with her [Chingari] has been enriching in so many ways, but I’m afraid life had other plans for us," he tweeted.

It is unclear what Kothari's next move will be at the moment.

In response to queries sent by The Decrypting Story, Sumit Ghosh, CEO and Co-founder of Chingari, said its current leadership team comprises Ghosh, COO and Co-founder Deepak Salvi, and Biswatma Nayak, CTO and Co-founder.

There are currently no plans to elevate anyone else within the company to the position of Co-founder following Kothari's exit, he told The Decrypting Story.

On what the future of Chingari would look like without Kothari, Ghosh emphasised that the company's success was not dependent on any one individual and that Kothari had not been active in Chingari's operations for the last 18 months.

Aditya Kothari issued a response to The Decrypting Story about his departure from the firm. "I had handed in my resignation 15 months ago due to the differences I had in the vision for the company, the style of leadership, and the company culture. However, given the critical juncture the company was in at that point, I was requested to carry on my responsibilities in my role by the Co-founder/CEO and I obliged. Once I had clearance from the board, I have exited formally. I still have full faith in Team Chingari, and under the right leadership it definitely has the potential to be something very special," he said in a written statement.

"The company has a strong team of co-founders and employees who are dedicated to the platform's growth...existing management comes with a rich experience in building, scaling, and marketing products in the past," he said, adding, "Overall, the company's success is a collective effort and Chingari is well-positioned to continue its growth and success under its current leadership."

Recently, Chingari partnered with Layer-1 blockchain Aptos to diversify its base beyond Solana and give its existing users an option to pick between multiple blockchains. The firm said it has more than five million daily active users (DAU) and 40 million monthly active users (MAU) as of February.

As per Ghosh, Chingari will launch an updated version of Aptos by the end of this month. It also plans to launch multiple other products by the end of this quarter.

Aptos partners with Chingari to expand India presence

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Aptos partners with Chingari to expand India presence

Chingari recently conducted its debut token burn of GARI, its native token. Token burn refers to an event undertaken by companies usually in a bid to stabilise the token's price.

However, Ghosh told Forbes that the token burn practice was Chingari's commitment to building a sustainable GARI ecosystem, and that it remains committed to creating effective economics to drive long-term success.

On the short video side, Chingari boasts 175+ million users, with daily active users amounting to 5 million, as per a report by Forbes. The platform enables videos in 11 languages, as per its blog.

Chingari also has plans to expand its reach to newer geographies including the US, Latin America, Africa, and Japan, Ghosh told The Decrypting Story.

(The copy was updated with a statement from Aditya Kothari.)