Hike Valuation, Funding & Investors

Hike is valued at $1.4B as of August 2016.

See full Hike profile

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

Hike Overview

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

IndiaNew Delhi

Website

hike.in

Status

Privately held

Customer focus

B2C

Revenue model

Product sales

Valuation

$1.4B (Aug 2016)

Hike Valuation

Hike is currently 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

Hike valuation by funding round
DateStageValuation
Aug 2016Series D$1.4B

Hike Funding History

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

Hike funding rounds
DateStageInvestorsRaisedValuationDeal Summary
Aug 2016Series DFoxconn (lead); Tencent (lead); SoftBank Group; Tiger Global; Bharti Enterprises$175M$1.4BHike 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 2014Series CTiger 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 2014Series ABharti 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 2013Series ABharti 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

Investors in Hike by funding rounds participated
InvestorHQRoundsRoleFirst check
Bharti Soft BankUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA3LeadApr 2013
Tiger GlobalUnited StatesNew York City, NY2LeadAug 2014
FoxconnTaiwanTaipei1LeadAug 2016
Audrey CapitalUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA1ParticipantMar 2014
SoftBank GroupJapanTokyo1ParticipantAug 2016

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Benchmark 350K+ Funding Rounds and Disclosed VC Valuation Multiples

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Acquisitions 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

CREO
InstaLively
Thought Mechanics
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 CountryIndiaIndiaUnited States
HQ City
Bangalore
New Delhi
Atlanta, GA
Deal Date11 Aug 201730 Jun 20178 Jan 2015
Valuationundisclosedundisclosedundisclosed
EV/Revenue
EV/EBITDA

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Investments by Hike

Hike has invested in 1 company to date.

Latest investment by Hike was on February 22nd 2019. Hike invested in WinZO in their $5M Series A round.


Latest Investments by Hike

WinZO
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 CountryIndia
HQ City
New Delhi
Deal Date22 Feb 2019
RoundSeries A
Raised$5M
InvestorsKalaari Capital
Valuationundisclosed
EV/Revenue
EV/EBITDA

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Hike Competitors

Hike competitors include listed companies like Securitize and OSL Group, and private ones like Mythical Games, Npixel, Félix and Figment.

Public and private companies comparable to Hike
CompanyHQStatusRevenueEBITDAValuationRevenue Multiple
Mythical GamesUnited StatesLos Angeles, CAPrivate--$1B-
NpixelSouth KoreaSeoulPrivate--$861M-
FélixUnited StatesSan Francisco, CAPrivate--$1.4B-
FigmentCanadaTorontoPrivate--$1.4B-
SecuritizeUnited StatesUnited StatesPublicly listed$62M($34M)$1.5B22.2x
OSL GroupHong KongHong KongPublicly listed$62M($48M)$1.2B11.3x

Hike Public Comps

Hike is still privately-owned, but its public comps include Nazara Technologies, Securitize, Shift Up, DeNA, NHN Entertainment, OSL Group, mixi, Ourpalm, Modern Times Group and MNC Digital Entertainment.

Last FYEV/RevenueEV/EBITDA
RevenueEBITDALast FYLTM2027ELast FYLTM2027E
Nazara Technologies$191M$30M7.4x5.3x46.7x38.5x
Securitize$62M($34M)25.5x22.2x(46.0x)(37910.8x)
Shift Up$214M$166M4.3x5.4x5.5x9.5x
DeNA$950M$177M1.1x1.1x5.8x6.5x
NHN Entertainment$1.8B$176M0.6x0.6x6.5x5.4x
OSL Group$62M($48M)16.6x11.3x(21.7x)(23.2x)
mixi$1.1B$218M0.9x0.8x4.5x4.7x
Ourpalm$105M($31M)11.9x12.3x(40.4x)366.4x

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Common questions about Hike

When was Hike founded?Hike was founded in 2012.
Where is Hike headquartered?Hike is headquartered in New Delhi, India.
Is Hike publicly listed?No, Hike is a private, VC-backed company.
What is Hike's valuation?Hike was last valued at $1.4B in its Series D in August 2016.
How much funding has Hike raised?Hike has 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 are Hike's investors?Hike's investors include Bharti Soft Bank, Tiger Global, Foxconn, Audrey Capital, SoftBank Group, Tencent and Bharti Enterprises.
Which companies are comparable to Hike?Companies comparable to Hike include Mythical Games, Npixel, Félix, Figment, Securitize and OSL Group.
How many companies has Hike acquired?Hike has acquired 3 companies, including CREO, InstaLively and Thought Mechanics.
How many companies has Hike invested in?Hike has invested in 1 company, including WinZO.
What was Hike's last investment?In February 2019, Hike invested in WinZO's $5M Series A alongside Kalaari Capital.

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