News Update

Chingari Co-Founder Aditya Kothari Resigns from Short-Video App


ChinAditya Kothari, the co-founder of Chingari, has recently announced his departure from the short-video platform amidst the industry’s ongoing turbulence. Kothari took to Twitter to share the news, stating that “the small sparks that ignited a few years ago have now grown into a massive blaze of over 170 million users. As a result, Kothari believes it’s time to pass on the torch and bid farewell to his old flame, Chingari”.

Aditya Kothari, who recently stepped down as co-founder of Chingari, has expressed his openness to explore new opportunities in the startup world as an investor or advisor. While refraining from revealing his future plans, Kothari acknowledged his journey with Chingari as “enriching in so many ways” and compared it to getting off at his station. In a Twitter thread, Kothari thanked Chingari users, investors, partners, and his team for their support during his tenure as co-founder.

Reflecting on his experience at the short-video platform, Aditya Kothari shared that every decision he made was geared towards creating a product that would make him and the team proud, and fostering a company culture that was grounded in empathy. This included scaling operations, securing funding, and hiring top talent to drive growth. However, Kothari acknowledged that “life had other plans for him and the company, and it was time for him to move on to his next chapter”.

Aditya Kothari, a serial entrepreneur and Presidency College Bengaluru alumnus, has an impressive track record of co-founding successful ventures, including Hey Leela (a fashion portal), LogVisitor (a visitor management system), and Spare Tickets (a ticketing platform). According to his LinkedIn profile, Kothari has also worked as the business and strategy lead for EV startup Bounce.

Aditya Kothari co-founded Chingari in 2018 with Sumit Ghosh, Biswatma Nayak, and Deepak Salvi, during a time when several short-video platforms were gaining popularity in India after the ban on TikTok. Chingari is an on-chain social app that enables users to create, explore, and exchange video content. The platform also features a crypto token called GARI, which has the support of Bollywood actor Salman Khan. In recent news, Chingari secured an undisclosed amount of equity funding from Aptos Labs earlier this year.

Aditya Kothari’s departure from Chingari coincides with a crisis affecting the short-video app space. Many Indian short-video apps have witnessed a decline in daily active users (DAUs) and monthly downloads since January 2021, attributed to the absence of a profitable monetization strategy and unsuccessful attempts to generate revenue. Furthermore, the ongoing funding winter has added to the challenges faced by these platforms, impacting the entire startup ecosystem.

Chingari has encountered its share of challenges, including accusations of inflating video view counts and utilizing dark patterns to entice users. Additionally, the platform’s crypto token, GARI, has failed to gain traction and proved to be an unfavorable investment for its backers, plummeting almost 92% from its high of $0.72 on July 4, 2022, and is now trading at $0.05177.

Aditya Kothari’s departure from Chingari is the latest in a series of Indian cofounders stepping down from their startups. In March, Deepu Sebin, cofounder of edtech platform DailyRounds, left the company, while Anshuman Kumar, Teachmint’s cofounder and CTO, resigned in April. Earlier this year, ShareChat’s cofounders Bhanu Pratap Singh and Farid Ahsan relinquished their active roles in the company, and Gunjan Patidar, cofounder and CTO of foodtech giant Zomato, also announced his departure.

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