Kavin Bharti Mittal

Kavin Bharti Mittal is an Indian internet entrepreneur, He is the founder and CEO of Hike, the company behind Indian unicorn Hike Messenger[1] and the Rush Gaming Universe (RGU), a mobile gaming application, which has plans to come on-chain[2] in 2022 with 2-layer blockchain platform, Polygon. The RGU announced its latest round of funding[3] from Jump Capital, Tribe Capital and Republic Crypto.

Kavin Bharti Mittal
Born31 August 1987
Delhi, India
Alma materImperial College London
Occupation(s)Founder and CEO of Hike Messenger
Known forHike
Parent
Websitewww.hike.in

Early life

Mittal is the son of entrepreneur Sunil Mittal, an Indian billionaire entrepreneur and founder of Bharti Enterprises, and Nyna Mittal. He graduated in Electronics and Electrical Engineering from the University of York and completed his Master's in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and Management from the Imperial College London.[4] Kavin interned at McLaren Racing, Google and Goldman Sachs while studying at Imperial College London. At McLaren Racing, he helped the Formula1 team embed a technology that would show the track flags on steering wheels.[5][4]

From an early age, Mittal had a keen interest for coding. He started coding during his college days and was building apps for big platforms like Facebook and Apple Inc. When the iPhone first launched in 2007, followed by the App Store in 2008, Mittal, still in his final year at college, brought together a few friends to build his first App for the iOS platform – MoviesNow, a movie-ticketing app in collaboration with movietickets.com.[6]

Career

After moving back to India, Mittal founded Hike in 2012 as an Indian internet company that developed social communication and entertainment products.[7] From 2012 to 2018, Hike built the Hike Messenger SuperApp centred around messaging to bring India, a mobile-first population, online. At its peak in 2018, Hike had reached more than 30 million monthly active users and had raised over $250 million in capital from investors such as Tiger Global, Tencent, SoftBank and Foxconn.[8][9][10]

In 2019, Hike decided to shut down the app [11][12] citing that the market dynamic had shifted with cheaper data coming in and smartphone prices dipping sharply. According to Mittal, the smartphone itself was now a SuperApp, undercutting the need for a SuperApp like Hike in the Indian market.[13][14]

After Hike's closure, Mittal pivoted the company to focus on building the Rush Gaming Universe, a mobile gaming application. In August 2021, they announced an undisclosed round of funding led by Tinder cofounder Justin Mateen.[15] The round also saw participation from SoftBank Vision Fund CEO Rajeev Misra, Tinder co-founder Sean Rad, Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, CRED founder Kunal Shah, and others.

In February 2022, Mittal announced that Polygon had joined Hike's list of investors and partners, with the Rush Gaming Universe confirming[16] its rumored plans for blockchain gaming. In May 2022, Mittal's Hike announced an undisclosed round of funding from web3 investors Jump Capital, Tribe Capital and Republic Crypto, the blockchain investment arm of Republic Capital.[3]

Public profile

Kavin Mittal was featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2017.[17] Mittal was also a part of 35 under 35 Entrepreneur magazine 2016 list.[18]

See also

References
  1. Verma, Upasana Jain,Shrutika (2016-08-16). "Hike messaging app raises $175 million, joins unicorn club". mint. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  2. "Kavin Bharti Mittal's Hike partners with Polygon to bring the Rush Gaming Universe onto web3". Business Insider. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  3. "Kavin Bharti Mittal's Hike raises fresh funds for its web3 play-to-earn blockchain gaming project". Business Insider. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  4. Ghosh, Shauvik (7 March 2013). "The defining moment: Kavin Bharti Mittal". mint. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
  5. "10 next-generation business tycoons: Meet the kids of India's richest people". GQ India. 29 January 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
  6. Menon, Rashmi. "Hike Messenger's Kavin Mittal says, it is hard to go back when you realise you can change the world". The Economic Times. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
  7. "Hike Instant Messenger App Crosses 20 Million Users Mark". www.gizbot.com/. 16 June 2014. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
  8. Singh, S. Ronendra (16 August 2016). "Hike raises $175 million from Tencent, Foxconn". @businessline. Retrieved 2021-11-15.
  9. "Hike Messenger raises $175 mn from investors led by Tencent". The Hindu. 2016-08-17. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2021-11-15.
  10. "India's WhatsApp rival Hike raises $175M led by Tencent at a $1.4B valuation". TechCrunch. 16 August 2016. Retrieved 2021-11-15.
  11. Mittal, Kavin Bharti (2019-09-23). "Future of Social – The Rise of Social Niches". Medium. Retrieved 2021-11-15.
  12. Mittal, Kavin Bharti (2019-09-24). "2019: Multi-Apps > Super App". Medium. Retrieved 2021-11-15.
  13. Thomas, Ayushi Kar | Thomas K. (6 November 2020). "Super apps won't work in India: Kavin Bharti Mittal". @businessline. Retrieved 2021-11-15.
  14. Sharma, Nishant. "Hike's Kavin Mittal On Why The Super App Model Won't Work In India". BloombergQuint. Retrieved 2021-11-15.
  15. "Hike secures new funds from Tinder cofounder Justin Mateen, others". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2021-11-15.
  16. "Polygon invests in Hike's Rush Gaming Universe; aims to bring it onto Web 3". VCCircle. 2022-01-27. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  17. Wang, Yue. "Kavin Bharti Mittal, 29 – pg.1". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-03-19.
  18. Sabharwal, Punita (2017-02-28). "Meet the Zen Billionaire of India – Kavin Bharti Mittal". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 2017-11-29.
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