More than four years after becoming a unicorn, Kavin Bharti Mittal, founder of networking and gaming platform Hike, on Tuesday announced its latest round of funding led by Justin Mateen (Co-Founder, Tinder).
The funding round, which raised an undisclosed sum, also witnessed participation from Rajeev Misra (CEO, SoftBank Vision Fund), Sean Rad (Co-Founder, Tinder), Arjun Sethi (Co-Founder & Partner, Tribe Capital), Bhavin Turakhia (Co-Founder, Zeta & Titan), Kunal Shah (Founder, Cred), Binny Bansal (Co-Founder, Flipkart), Aditya Agarwal (Partner in Residence, South Park Commons), Kunal Bahl (Co-Founder & CEO, Snapdeal) and Rohit Kumar Bansal (Co-Founder, Snapdeal).
Mittal said, “We’re thrilled to have some of the world’s most iconic product builders and investors join us in our journey. The rapid technological evolution over the last few years has paved the way for massive disruption in social and gaming. There’s little to separate these two categories. Gaming is now inherently social, evolving into a new way for people to hang out & interact in the virtual world.”
“We’ve been building new ways for people to express themselves online, building new ways for them to hang out online. More importantly, we are building new ways for people to participate in the networks they help build, in ways that weren’t possible before. The next decade is going to spawn a whole new social future and we’re so excited to be contributing to this future with our incredible list of new investors,” added Mittal.
The fresh funding will be deployed to expand the platform's product strategy, along with hiring across functions. Hike operates a fully remote cross-functional team of over 160 employees, who work remotely from over 50 cities. With over 25 open positions, Hike is hiring talent across roles at the intersection of social, gaming, and crypto, it said.
Earlier this year, the company shut down its chat services to focus on gaming platform Rush and Vibe.