Bharti

Hike Messenger Crosses 35 Million Users; Raises $ 65 Million Led by Tiger Global

• ● 35 Million Users:: Adds 15 Million users in just 2 months, brings total user-base to 35 Million with over 50 % active every month.
• ● Messaging Volumes: Handling over 10 Billion messages per month and over 3 Billion stickers per month
• ● 90 % Indians: Over 90 % users from India; over 80 % under the age of 25
• ● Raises $ 65 M: Hike raises $ 65 Million at the back of fast paced growth to invest into product and growing its team

New Delhi, August 27, 2014: hike messenger, the only homegrown instant messaging app, today crossed the 35 Million user mark, making it one of the fastest growing messaging apps from India. Over 50% of the users are active on the platform on a monthly basis. The milestone also marks an infusion of fresh investment of $ 65 Million led by Tiger Global, a New York based investment firm and followed by Bharti SoftBank. Today, hike is handling over 10 Billion messages and 3 Billion stickers per month.

Kavin Bharti Mittal, Founder & CEO, Hike, said,“This is a big milestone for us. We’ve almost doubled our user base, adding 15 Million users in the last 2 months itself. We can see that our users love hike and we're now doing over 10 Billion messages per month. With the new investment, our focus will continue on developing innovative features to bridge the existing gaps in messaging market in India. The investment will also be directed towards growing our team and attracting the best talent in India. Going forward our aim is to become the first mobile-Internet company for India to cross a 100 Million users and we’re extremely excited to have Tiger Global join us on our mission to bring India online”.

Lee Fixel, Partner , Tiger Global Management, said,"Hike’s grasp and understanding of the Indian market was apparent from the time we first met. The company’s incredible traction, the rapid pace at which its team operates and its sharp focus are compelling. Kavin and his team have built India’s fastest growing mobile app and have an ambitious vision of bringing India’s one billion potential mobile Internet users online through their messaging platform. I'm excited to join the board as we continue growing rapidly in the months ahead."

In terms of growth, Hike messenger has shown consistent growth in its user base in a challenging market like India. Hike’s features have a local flavor since they have been developed taking into account the peculiarities and unique requirements of the Indian consumers. This has been enabled by way Hike works really closely with its users, wherein product features and stickers are co-created with its users through an open channel of regular feedback and suggestion. These features have been designed to address cultural and infrastructural problems such as lack of privacy and inconsistent data connectivity, amongst many others.

hike is available globally on iOS, Android, WP, Blackberry, BB10, S40, S60; and is made with love in India.

Additional information:

You can download the app at - http://get.hike.in/

Visit our blog for more details on the new features - http://hike.in/blog/

Hike's key feature:

*'Hike Offline' enables users to message those friends who do not have data connectivity or dont't even have a smartphone, for free.

*'Hidden Mode' feature enables users to hide their private chats from being seen by anyone else. Only the users will be able to launch the app and see the hidden chat.

*'Big File Attachments'-equips users to send files in any format; from Docs,PPTs,PDFs to MP3,etc;up to a 100MB each, surpassing the attachment limit of all IM apps and even emails clients.

*To further add context to messaging, the app gives the ability to share localized Stickers and 2-way chat Themes.

Hike’s Journey:

.

• ● Dec, 2012: Global launch
• ● Feb 2013: Messaging traffic grows 10X week on week
• ● April 2013: Hits the first 5M user milestone in just 4 months of its launch | Raised $ 7 M from BSB
• ● June 2013: Stickers are on hike!
• ● Aug 2013: Digital ad campaign goes live
• ● Nov 2013: Co-creation exercise with users – including real-time feedback from the users for product development
• ● Dec 2013: Hike turns 1 year old! Launches two-way Chat Themes
• ● Feb 2014: Hit the 15 M user mark
• ● April 2014: Receives $14 M fresh funding from BSB
• ● June 2014: Crossed 20 M user mark, launched TVC
• ● July 2014: Hit #1 rank on App stores
• ● August 2014: Crosses 35 M user mark, receives $ 65 M fresh funding led by Tiger Global

About Tiger Global Management:

Tiger Global is a fundamentally oriented, global investment firm. The Firm deploys capital in private equity partnerships and public equity funds. Tiger Global’s private equity partnerships have ten-year investment horizons and invest in growth companies in the global Internet and technology sectors. Tiger Global’s private investments have included SurveyMonkey, Warby Parker, Yandex, Facebook, Linkedin, Jingdong, Despegar, Mail.ru Group, Ctrip, Flipkart, Makemytrip, Justdial, Netshoes, MercadoLibre, OnDeck, and Eventbrite. The Firm’s public equity funds focus on long-term trends in the technology, telecom, media, retail and consumer sectors. Tiger Global was founded in 2001 and is based in New York.

About Bharti SoftBank:

BSB is a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and SoftBank Co. with a focus on innovating in the Mobile-Internet ecosystem.