Hike
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Hike was an Indian tech company founded in 2012 by Kavin Bharti Mittal that began as Hike Messenger, a homegrown rival to WhatsApp that reached 40 million monthly users and a $1.4 billion valuation. After shutting the messenger in 2021, it pivoted to real-money gaming with Rush, a platform of casual games like carrom and ludo that reached 10 million users and over $500 million in gross revenue.
02 / Hike FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Hike died by regulation. After its messaging business lost to WhatsApp, the company bet everything on real-money gaming through Rush. The pivot worked commercially, but it concentrated all risk in one regulatory regime. In August 2025 India passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, a blanket ban on real-money gaming. With its core business outlawed overnight, founder Kavin Bharti Mittal wound Hike down completely in September 2025, writing that for the first time in 13 years it was not worth continuing.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Operations ended
Hike shutting down after India's Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act 2025 banned real-money gaming. Founder Substack and Indian Express: 'wind down Hike completely' / cease all operations; US pivot not worth full recap.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
A pivot that swaps market risk for regulatory risk is a concentration bet, not diversification.
- 02
When your business model can be outlawed overnight, keep a non-regulated revenue line alive.
- 03
Knowing when to return capital instead of fighting the state is a founder skill.