Redcore, a Chinese start-up that had boasted of its home-grown browser technology, has issued an official apology letter on its social media account on Friday after users uncovered similarities with Google’s software.

In the company’s recent fundraising, there had been degrees of exaggeration that had misled the public, the company said in a letter issued Friday on its Wechat account. “We have indeed done things wrong, for which we hereby present our formal apology,” said Redcore. 

“Our browser was developed based on the open source project of Chromium, and has made technological innovations based on that," Redcore said in a company statement released late Thursday night in response to fierce public criticism. Chrome is based on the Chromium project.