Hike to down shutters; Founder Kavin Mittal terms it difficult decision

New Delhi, Sep 13 (PTI) Hike founder Kavin Mittal has announced the complete winding down of 13-year old startup, saying while its US business was off to a strong start, scaling globally after India ban on real money gaming would require a "reset that is not the best use of capital or time".

In a post on LinkedIn, the entrepreneur and Bharti Group scion questioned if raising more capital for a pivot by Hike was worth it, and concluded it was not. Neither for himself, his team, nor investors.

"After regrouping with our investors and the team, I've made the difficult decision to wind down Hike completely," he wrote in the post.

The US business, which launched just nine months ago, was off to a strong start "but after the India ban, scaling globally would require a full recap, a reset that is not the best use of capital or time", he said.

"The big question - we could raise the capital, but the real question is: is it worth it? 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.

While listing out the factors driving his decision, Mittal reflected that real money gaming was never the destination, but rather a way to test unit economics and traction in India while working toward a bigger vision.

The real money online gaming space dealt a fatal blow after Parliament passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, banning all forms of online money games, while promoting e-sports and online social games.

Now an Act, after the President's nod, it aims to crackdown on rising instances of addiction, money laundering and financial fraud through such applications. Following the passage of the Bill in Parliament, online gaming platforms, including Dream11, My11Circle, WinZO, Zupee, and Nazara Technologies-backed PokerBaazi, have halted their real-money online gaming offerings.

Kavin Mittal in his LinkedIn post said that in hindsight, starting in India locked the company into the model and regulatory headwinds, turning a temporary path into a more permanent one.

"The Gaming Nation vision is real, but we may be too early," he said.

The world will eventually move toward a Nation-type model in gaming and Web3 - Company 2.0, he said but noted crypto regulation is still developing globally, "and we don't want to repeat India, where we hoped for clarity that never came".

Even in case of a full reset, he wondered, "is this where I'd put my own capital and energy today." "For the first time, the answer is no. The world has changed in the last decade - and so have I. There are more important problems to solve and bigger opportunities to deploy brilliant talent and capital," he said.

The last 13 years have been "immense", Mittal said noting Hike Messenger reached 40 million monthly active users (MAUs).

"With Rush, we built a new kind of Casual PvP gaming platform and scaled it to 10 million users and USD 500 million plus in gross revenue (CEA) in just 4 years. Our execution was super, but we could never quite make it stick," he said.

Along the way, Mittal said he learnt valuable lessons. "Be careful with winner-take-all markets...Don't build for today's constraints," he advocated.

Mittal further emphasised that regulatory clarity mattered.

"Risk is fine; uncertainty is not," he wrote.

Looking ahead, AI and breakthroughs in energy provided three frontiers.

"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 said, and vowed that the new chapter will look very different from the last one. PTI MBI HVA