[Funding alert] Hike raises undisclosed round from Tinder co-founders, Binny Bansal, Kunal Shah, others

Social gaming startup Hike Tuesday said it raised an undisclosed amount of funding in its latest round from "most iconic product builders and investors". The round was led by Justin Mateen (Co-founder, Tinder).

Other investors, including Rajeev Misra (CEO, SoftBank Vision Fund), Sean Rad (Co-founder, Tinder), Arjun Sethi (Co-founder and Partner, Tribe Capital), Bhavin Turakhia (Co-founder, Zeta and Titan), Kunal Shah (Founder, CRED), Binny Bansal (Co-founder, Flipkart), Aditya Agarwal (Partner in Residence, South Park Commons), Kunal Bahl (Co-founder and CEO, Snapdeal), and Rohit Kumar Bansal (Co-founder, Snapdeal), also participated in the round.

Speaking on the funding, Kavin Bharti Mittal, Founder and CEO, Hike, 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 and interact in the virtual world.”

Hike will use the fresh capital to expand on its innovative product strategy and hire talent across functions. At present, Hike operates a fully remote cross-functional team of over 160 employees, working from across 50 cities.​​

With over 25 open positions, Hike is hiring talent across roles at the intersection of social, gaming, and crypto.

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In a tweet, Kavin said,

"We are also building avenues for our communities 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 it with our incredible new set of partners & investors."

Launched in December 2012, Gurugram-based unicorn Hike has shifted focus from messaging for the past couple of years. In July 2020, it launched HikeLand, which lets users hang out and interact in a mobile-first virtual world. The company also announced the launch of Hike Rush, its gaming-focused platform.