'Risk is fine; uncertainty is not': Kavin Mittal shares lessons as Hike shuts after 13 years
Founded in 2012, Hike Messenger was once one of India’s most promising consumer internet companies, peaking at 40 million monthly active users and being ranked the country’s 35th most loved consumer brand.
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Hike, once celebrated as India’s homegrown challenger to WhatsApp, is shutting down after 13 years in operation. The announcement was made by founder and chief executive officer Kavin Mittal, who informed investors in an email that all activities, including its recently launched US business, will be wound up.
The decision follows the Indian government’s recent ban on real money gaming (RMG), which Kavin Mittal said, had shortened the company’s financial runway from seven months to just four. “After much reflection and speaking with a few of you, I’ve decided to wind down Hike operations completely, including the US,” he wrote.
Although Hike’s US business was launched only nine months ago and was “off to a strong start”, Mittal wrote his thoughts on his substack titled 'Closing a chapter, opening a new one'. He admitted that scaling globally under the current circumstances would require a full recapitalisation and strategic reset. “The big question was never whether we could raise the capital. It was: is this a climb worth pivoting for? For the first time in 13 years, my answer is no. Not for me, not for my team, and not for our investors,” he said.
Early promise and difficult lessons
Founded in 2012, Hike Messenger was once one of India’s most promising consumer internet companies, peaking at 40 million monthly active users and being ranked the country’s 35th most loved consumer brand. More recently, the company ventured into gaming with Rush, a casual PvP platform that scaled to 10 million users and generated more than $500 million in gross revenue within four years.
Reflecting on Hike’s journey, he noted lessons learned: “Be careful with winner-take-all markets. To win, you need to go global. Don’t build for today’s constraints—build for the spring and summer of new technologies. Regulatory clarity matters. Risk is fine; uncertainty is not.” RMG, he explained, was “never the destination”, but rather a way to test unit economics and traction in the domestic market. In hindsight, the decision to begin in India had “locked us into the model and regulatory headwinds”.
Looking forward
While this chapter closes, Mittal said the experience had strengthened his conviction for what comes next. “This is both a disappointment and a hard outcome. But the learnings are invaluable,” he said, while also paying tribute to his team, calling them “an incredible group of people who gave this everything”.
Mittal indicated that his future focus will be on three frontiers: artificial intelligence, breakthroughs in energy, and mastery of the self. “Just imagine a future where willpower is infinite, energy is abundant, and intelligence is at our fingertips. This is the future I will help build — and it’s where I’ll be contributing in the decades to come,” he wrote.
