New Delhi, Nov 4 (IANS): Short video app Chingari on Thursday announced that its first-ever crypto token 'GARI' raised $40 million within 24 hours of its live sale on Republic platform.

Republic is a crowd-equity platform that offers investments in startups, real estate, gaming and crypto.

"GARI has been designed to empower the creator community with content monetisation opportunities. The token is built on Solana - one of the biggest & rapidly growing blockchains globally," the company said in a statement.

Recently, the firm completed a funding round of over $19 million from more than 30 venture funds and individual investors.

Founded in November 2018, Chingari lets users download and upload short videos and shop for merchandise within the app, among other things. The Bengaluru-based rival of Instagram Reels, MX Takatak, Josh and Moj boasts of 50 million monthly active users and 85 million downloads to date and the co-founders are confident that it will be India's fastest growing 'Social Token App'.

Since its redesign in June 2020, Chingari worked to fill the vacuum created by TikTok's ban in India. Ever since, the number of Chingari users is claimed to have increased exponentially.