Indian short-form video app Mitron, an alternative to the now-banned TikTok, has raised its first venture capital funding of Rs 2 crore from 3One4 Capital and LetsVenture.
Sources said the company is planning to utilize the funding to speed up its product development roadmap, engage more deeply with Indian content creators who are sharing videos on the app, and hire talent to scale the tech infrastructure. Shivank Agarwal, founder and CEO of Mitron, said, “With the support of this round, our focus is on building features and supporting content that uniquely resonates with Indian users while prioritizing community standards and local laws in India.”
Interestingly, the development comes two days after the central government banned 59 Chinese mobile apps like TikTok, Club Factory, Helo, DU Recorder and WeChat, to counter the threat posed by these apps to the nation’s “sovereignty and security.” It may be mentioned here that Agarwal, a computer science engineer, founded the Mitron app along with Anish Khandelwal earlier this year. The app went live on Google Play in April and crossed 50 lakh downloads in less than 30 days after its debut.
Last month, the so-called “desi” TikTok alternative was pulled down from the Google Play Store, for violating its ‘spam and minimum functionality’ policy, where it was accused of copying the content of other apps. It is worth noting that other homegrown apps like Chingari, Roposo have also benefitted from the Indian government’s move.