- Hike Founder Kavin Bharti Mittal has decided to wind down Hike completely
- US business launched nine months ago showed strong initial performance but scaling would need "full recap"
- Regulatory issues in India turned a temporary gaming model into a permanent challenge, he says
Hike Founder Kavin Bharti Mittal has made the "difficult decision to wind down Hike completely." Mittal, in a post on X, stated that the company's US business, launched just nine months ago, is off to a strong start, but scaling it globally would require a "full recap, a reset that is not the best use of capital or time."
Mittal explains that for the first time in 13 years, his answer is "no" to the question of whether this is a climb worth pivoting for, for himself, his team, or his investors.
Firstly, he notes that Real Money Gaming was never the final destination but a temporary path to test unit economics and traction in India. He regrets that starting in India locked them into a model with regulatory headwinds, turning a temporary path into a more permanent one.
After regrouping with our investors and the team, I've made the difficult decision to wind down Hike completely.
September 13, 2025
Our US business, launched just nine months ago, is off to a strong start. But scaling globally would require a full recap, a reset that is not the best use of capital… pic.twitter.com/gzXG26fFtQSecondly, Mittal believes the "Gaming Nation vision is real," but he feels the company may be "too early" as global crypto regulation is still developing, and he does not want to repeat the experience in India where "he hoped for clarity that never came."
Looking back, Mittal reflects on the journey, noting that Hike Messenger reached 40M monthly active users and became a top consumer brand in India. With Rush, they built a Casual PvP gaming platform that scaled to 10M users and over $500M in gross revenue in four years.
He believes the execution was "super," but they "could never quite make it stick." He highlights three lessons learned: being careful with "winner-take-all markets" that require global scale, building for the "spring/summer of new technologies," and understanding that "regulatory clarity matters" because "risk is fine; uncertainty is not."
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