Hike Valuation, Funding & Investors
Hike is not operational anymore. Its last reported valuation was $1.4B as of August 2016.
Last Hike valuation
$1.4B
Series D · Aug 2016
Last Hike funding round
$175M
Series D · Aug 2016
Cumulative funding Hike raised
$261M
across 4 funding rounds
Key investors in Hike
Bharti Soft Bank
Tiger Global
SoftBank Group
Tencent
Foxconn
Audrey Capital
About Hike
Hike is a Bengaluru-headquartered blockchain gaming company pivoting from its origins as a messaging app. It develops the Rush Gaming Universe, a Web3 platform blending social gaming with play-to-earn mechanics. Hike partners with studios for titles in casual and competitive genres, enabling skill-based earning across mobile and PC.
Founded
2012
HQ
New DelhiWebsite
Status
Closed
Customer focus
B2C
Revenue model
Product sales
Valuation
$1.4B (Aug 2016)
Hike Valuation
Hike is insolvent and not operational anymore. Read the announcement ↗
Hike was last valued at $1.4B, based on its Series D in August 2016.
The $175M round was led by Foxconn and Tencent, with participation from SoftBank Group, Tiger Global and Bharti Enterprises.
Hike valuation by funding round
| Date | Stage | Valuation |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | Write-down · Insolvency | $0 |
| Aug 2016 | Series D | $1.4B |
Hike Funding History
Before winding down, Hike has raised a total of $261M across 4 funding rounds.
Hike's first fundraising round was a $7M Series A in April 2013. The most recent completed round was a $175M Series D in August 2016.
Hike funding rounds
| Date | Stage | Investors | Raised | Valuation | Deal Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2016 | Series D | Foxconn (lead); Tencent (lead); SoftBank Group; Tiger Global; Bharti Enterprises | $175M | $1.4B | Hike Messenger, an Indian messaging app launched in 2012 as a WhatsApp rival, raised $175 million in its Series D funding round on August 16, 2016, led by new investors Tencent and Foxconn, with participation from existing backers Bharti Enterprises, SoftBank, and Tiger Global. The round valued the company at $1.4 billion post-money, earning it unicorn status as India's newest billion-dollar tech startup at the time. Founder and CEO Kavin Bharti Mittal, son of Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal, confirmed the valuation details. Hike differentiates itself through localization for India's youth market, targeting users aged 15-24 primarily outside major cities, with features like hidden chats, privacy modes, localized stickers, mobile games, news services, and shopping coupons. The app boasted over 100 million registered users, with 90% in the target demographic, sending 40 billion messages monthly, 100 million daily game sessions (20-25 million per day in games), and 1.5 billion news stories viewed monthly by 50 million-plus users. It had grown from 15 million users in early 2014 to 70 million by late 2015, with over 20 billion monthly messages then. The funding, bringing total capital raised to over $250 million, aims to enhance product features, expand the 250-person team, invest in AI, machine learning, AR/VR, and potential acquisitions, while leveraging Tencent's WeChat expertise in content, games, and super apps, and Foxconn's Android device insights for pre-bundling and usage analytics. Hike positions itself not as a direct WhatsApp competitor but as a complementary app offering more than SMS replacement, focusing on India's diverse, Android-dominated market amid cooling investor sentiment shifting toward profitability. Strategic partnerships with Tencent and Foxconn are seen as moves to challenge WhatsApp's dominance, drawing on WeChat's enterprise success in China, while Foxconn's software capabilities aid Android optimization in India. |
| Aug 2014 | Series C | Tiger Global (lead); Bharti Soft Bank | $65M | - | Hike Messenger, an Indian instant messaging app founded in December 2012 by Kavin Bharti Mittal, raised $65 million in a funding round around August 2014 led by Tiger Global with participation from Bharti SoftBank. The app had crossed 35 million users by then, adding 15 million in the prior two months, with over 50% monthly active users, handling 10 billion messages and 3 billion stickers monthly. Prior rounds included $7 million from Bharti SoftBank in April 2013 and $14 million from the same investor in February or March 2014. Hike positioned itself as India's homegrown messaging app, available on multiple platforms including iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, and Nokia, with over 90% of users in India and 80% under 25 years old. The funding aimed to support scaling technology for massive message volumes and pursue ambitious growth, with CEO Kavin Bharti Mittal targeting 100 million users as the first Indian mobile-internet company to achieve that. Tiger Global's Lee Fixel praised Hike's market understanding, traction, and operational speed. Hike differentiated through features like free texting in India, chat themes, stickers, and hidden chats, achieving top app store rankings by July 2014. Later developments included reaching 70 million users by October 2015 with over 20 billion monthly messages, and a $175 million Series D in 2016 led by Tencent and Foxconn at $1.4 billion valuation, bringing total funding over $250 million, with participation from existing investors Tiger Global, Bharti, and SoftBank. Hike expanded into games (100 million monthly sessions), news (50 million users, 1.5 billion stories viewed monthly), coupons, and planned investments in video, local content, AR, and ML, positioning beyond SMS replacement like WhatsApp to offer more comprehensive services for Indian youth. |
| Mar 2014 | Series A | Bharti Soft Bank (lead); Audrey Capital | $14M | - | Hike is a free cross-platform mobile instant messaging app launched in December 2012 by Kavin Bharti Mittal, son of Bharti Group Chairman Sunil Mittal. The app supports features like Hike2SMS for feature phone users, status updates, stickers, and chat themes, targeting young users in India where over 80% of its users are under 25. Bharti SoftBank, a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and SoftBank Corporation, invested $14 million (Rs 84 crore) in Hike around April 2014, following a prior $7 million investment in April 2013. By February 2014, Hike had crossed 15 million users, mostly in India, representing three-fold growth over the prior nine months. The funding aimed to accelerate user acquisition, expand the team, and hire top talent to drive growth in India's untapped market of less than 100 million active mobile internet users out of 1.2 billion people. Hike competed with global messaging apps like WhatsApp, which had around 10 million users in India at the time. |
| Apr 2013 | Series A | Bharti Soft Bank (lead) | $7M | - | Hike is a free mobile messaging app launched in December 2012 that integrates instant messaging with SMS, enabling users to send free messages even to non-Hike users on feature phones. Bharti SoftBank, a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and SoftBank, invested $7 million in Hike on April 25, 2013. At the time, Hike had crossed 5 million users in four months, marking it as one of the fastest-growing mobile apps globally, with strong traction in India where over 90% of the mobile population used feature phones. |
Who has invested in Hike?
7 investors have backed Hike across its funding rounds, including Bharti Soft Bank, Tiger Global, SoftBank Group, Tencent, Foxconn and Audrey Capital.
Lead investors include Foxconn, Tencent, Tiger Global and Bharti Soft Bank.
Hike Investors
| Investor | HQ | Rounds | Role | First check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 San Francisco, CA | 3 | Lead | Apr 2013 | |
| New York City, NY | 2 | Lead | Aug 2014 | |
 Taipei | 1 | Lead | Aug 2016 | |
| San Francisco, CA | 1 | Participant | Mar 2014 | |
 Tokyo | 1 | Participant | Aug 2016 | |
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Benchmark 350K+ Funding Rounds and Disclosed VC Valuation Multiples
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Start Free TrialAcquisitions by Hike
Hike has acquired 3 companies to date.
Last acquisition by Hike was on August 11th 2017. Hike acquired CREO for undisclosed valuation.
Latest Acquisitions by Hike
| Description | CREO is a Toronto-based agency designing immersive experiences blending physical events, AR apps, and social campaigns. Past projects include brand activations for Red Bull at music festivals and virtual reality tours for Scotiabank. The team handles end-to-end production from concept to metrics tracking. | InstaLively is a platform enabling live event broadcasting from mobile devices over 3G networks directly to YouTube channels. It digitizes video and audio content for enterprises in India and Southeast Asia. | Thought Mechanics is a Naples-headquartered web development and digital marketing agency with an additional office in Atlanta. The firm builds e-commerce sites on WordPress and Shopify, produces promotional videos, and manages social media campaigns for clients in real estate and hospitality. Services include SEO optimization and Google Ads management, supporting businesses like Southwest Florida resorts since 2005. Thought Mechanics delivers projects for regional brands across Florida and Georgia. |
| HQ Country | | | |
| HQ City | Bangalore | New Delhi | Atlanta, GA |
| Deal Date | 11 Aug 2017 | 30 Jun 2017 | 8 Jan 2015 |
| Valuation | undisclosed | undisclosed | undisclosed |
| EV/Revenue | |||
| EV/EBITDA | |||
This data is available for Pro users. Sign up to see all Hike acquisitions and their M&A valuation multiples. Start Free Trial | |||
Investments by Hike
Hike has invested in 1 company to date.
Latest investment by Hike was on July 22nd 2019. Hike invested in WinZO in their $5M Series A round.
Latest Investments by Hike
| Description | WinZO is a New Delhi-headquartered social gaming platform offering skill-based esports titles with real-money prizes across Android and iOS devices. Players access over 70 games such as carrom, cricket, bubble shooter, fruit samurai, knife up, memory mania, fantasy leagues, and trivia challenges on a unified app supporting 12 regional Indian languages. More than 60 percent of its content consumption occurs in non-English languages, targeting mass-market users in India. Launched in 2018, the platform integrates seamless tournaments, leaderboards, and cash withdrawals. |
| HQ Country | |
| HQ City | New Delhi |
| Deal Date | 22 Jul 2019 |
| Round | Series A |
| Raised | $5M |
| Investors | Kalaari Capital |
| Valuation | undisclosed |
| EV/Revenue | |
| EV/EBITDA | |
This data is available for Pro users. Sign up to see all Hike investments and their VC round multiples. Start Free Trial | |
Hike Competitors
Hike competitors included listed companies like AGM Group Holdings and Valuno Group, and private ones like ArchiveMatter, Coinekt.me, Ethos Network and Solarmint.
| Company | HQ | Status | Revenue | EBITDA | Valuation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Hong Kong | Publicly listed | $31M | $4M | $2M | |
 Sweden | Publicly listed | $68M | ($7M) | $2M | |
 London | Private | - | - | $1M | |
 Blumenau | Private | - | - | $1M | |
| San Francisco, CA | Private | - | - | $1M | |
| -- | Private | - | - | $1M |
Hike Public Comps
Hike is defunct now, but its public comps included Genesis Holdings, Mobile Global Esports, Draw Distance, T Bull, Live Motion Games, Drageus Games, Waste Energy and Iron Wolf Studio.
| Last FY | EV/Revenue | EV/EBITDA | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | EBITDA | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | |||
| $4K | ($2M) | 235.4x | - | (0.4x) | - | |||
| $206K | $168K | 5.3x | - | 6.4x | - | |||
| $825K | ($1M) | 0.5x | - | (0.4x) | - | |||
| $291K | ($125K) | 1.5x | - | (3.5x) | - | |||
| $157K | ($44K) | 2.5x | - | (9.1x) | - | |||
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Common questions about Hike
| What happened to Hike? | Hike is not operational anymore and insolvent as of 13 September 2025. |
| When was Hike founded? | Hike was founded in 2012. |
| Where was Hike headquartered? | Hike was headquartered in New Delhi, India. |
| Was Hike publicly listed? | No, Hike was a private, VC-backed company. |
| What was Hike's valuation? | Hike was last valued at $1.4B in its Series D in August 2016. |
| How much did Hike raise? | Hike raised $261M across 4 funding rounds. |
| What was Hike's last funding round? | Hike's last funding round was a $175M Series D in August 2016, led by Foxconn and Tencent. |
| Who were Hike's investors? | Hike's investors included Bharti Soft Bank, Tiger Global, Foxconn, Audrey Capital, SoftBank Group, Tencent and Bharti Enterprises. |
| Who were Hike's competitors? | Hike's competitors included AGM Group Holdings, Valuno Group, ArchiveMatter, Coinekt.me, Ethos Network and Solarmint. |
| How many companies did Hike acquire? | Hike acquired 3 companies, including CREO, InstaLively and Thought Mechanics. |
| How many companies did Hike invest in? | Hike invested in 1 company, including WinZO. |
| What was Hike's last investment? | In July 2019, Hike invested in WinZO's $5M Series A alongside Kalaari Capital. |
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