Indian short video platform Chingari has raised around $19 million to build its native token called GARI on the Solana blockchain.

Short video platform closed a funding round today. It raised a total of $19 million from the investors.

The participants in the funding round were Republic Capital, Galaxy Digital, Solana Capital, Valor Equity Partners, and Alameda Research.

It will be using the funds to build its native token GARI, which will be deployed on the Solana blockchain.

Solana is one of the fastest-growing blockchain networks. It aims to be an alternative to Ethereum. Solana’s price has more than doubled. Currently, it is trading at around USDT 160.

Why Solana was chosen as the partner?

Chingari believes that “each user (creator and viewer alike) should have their own tokens and direct blockchain interactions.”

Such a platform needs a robust blockchain infrastructure to preserve its “natural strong characteristics.”

That’s why the company chose Solana as its partner. Additionally, it mentioned that Solana’s affordability, high speed, burgeoning user base, and proven track record were also key factors.

GARI and Platform Governance

The GARI token will be “fully rolled out to all app users by end of November”, Sumit Ghosh, founder and CEO of Chingari, told Coin Crunch India (CCI).

When asked if the platform is going for decentralized governance he said,

“We have a DAO for governance. All Chingari users who own GARI tokens and stake them will get voting and governance rights”

Sumit Ghosh, founder and CEO of Chingari

CCI was able to obtain the whitepaper of Chingari. 

As per that, the Chingari ecosystem will be driven by four kinds of actors: content creators, viewers, advertisers, and developers.

It means any user can propose changes and can get them implemented if the required amount of votes are in favour.

GARI is a social token: a digital asset-backed by the reputation of a brand, influencer, or community. So, it will give creators the freedom to launch their tokens.

Creators can make use of this provision through creator pools, wherein users can support the creators by “giving GARI” to them. Users then obtain the shares of the pool, whose value will be determined by the popularity of the creator. These users will also get access to “the locked content types: private chats, contests, videos, etc.”

Chingari is one of the fastest-growing short video sharing platforms in India. It was launched in the wake of TikTok getting banned in the country.