Tech-Head Search Firm Purple Quarter Assists Joining of Hike Messenger's New Head of Engineering

Tech-Head Search Firm Purple Quarter today said that the startup played a matchmaker between Hike Messenger and its new VP and Head of Engineering, Suvesh Malhotra. Purple Quarter was mandated by Hike Messenger to fulfill this position Prior to this, the CTO recruitment firm has closed many senior-level technology roles for various leading businesses like Rivigo, Tokopedia (the Indnoesian e-commerce giant), InMobi, Walmart Labs, Swiggy, Acko General Insurance, Swiggy, UrbanClap and more.

Commenting on the appointment of Suvesh Malhotra at Hike Messenger, Deepak Singh, Founder and CEO of Purple Quarter said, "When we received the mandate from Hike Messenger, we looked for candidates in gaming and other intense technology domains from both India and abroad. We were aware of Suvesh's extremely noteworthy work and he was already in our mind among the foremost choices for the role. We collected a deep understanding of his work by studying his career trajectory and proposed him to Kavin Mittal."

Purple Quarter states that the pandemic led to a demand surge in senior technology roles among firms. Roopa Kumar, the Co-founder and COO of the firm adds, "The pandemic led many businesses to amp up their technology game and as a result we never witnessed a slump in the demand for senior technology roles and this holds true for companies across verticals. The only challenge was physical or face-to-face meetings couldn't materialize, but making the best use of technology, our detailed and thorough process, which required a bit of a tweak for remote interviews never made remote interviews seem anything short of face-to-face meetings."

Founded in 2017, Purple Quarter is a CTO recruitment startup that deals with hiring for technology leadership-level roles for organizations.

Hike Launches Web Platform of its Messaging App

After crossing one million weekly active users, home-grown tech start-up Hike on Thursday launched the web version of its app Hike Sticker Chat, which will enable its users to chat over their personal computers as well.

"Hike Sticker Chat has crossed 1 million weekly active users. We are now unbundling our app. Instead of focussing on just app, we are also going to multiple (platforms). This week, we have started rolling out Hike on the web. It can be used even if the user's phone is switch off," founder and Chief Executive Officer Kavin Bharti Mittal said.



He said that while working on desktop or laptop, people do not want to keep looking at their phone. "With web application, we are making it convenient for them to engage with their friends.".

The company has also started rolling out auto-backup of users' data.

"People change their phone more often, there is massive tediousness around back-up. We needed to resolve it once and for all because data is so cheap. Everybody wants back-up. Those who don't want to have back-up can choose not to have back-up," Mittal said.

To push adoption of the Hike Sticker Chat app, the company is also working on a feature to allow sharing of stickers across all messaging platforms.

Hike Sticker Chat has over 40,000 stickers available in more than 40 Indian languages and dialects. It expects to have over 1 lakh stickers across languages by the end of the year, with an aim to cover a larger percentage of every major Indian language's vocabulary.

An average user of Hike spends 33 minutes on the app with over 55 million stickers being exchanged weekly, Mittal said.

Founded by Mittal, Hike is backed by SoftBank, Tiger Global, Tencent, Foxconn and Bharti. PTI PRS

Vernacular E-Sports platform WinZO Raises $5 Mn from Kalaari, Hike, Others

WinZO, India’s largest vernacular e-sports platform, raised $5MN in Series A early this year. The funding was led by Kalaari Capital and Hike, India's homegrown tech unicorn.

“WinZO’s team has achieved a strong product market fit and is all set to disrupt the vernacular entertainment space. We led company’s seed round early last year, and are highly impressed with the team’s growth trajectory and strong execution.” added Rahul Garg, Principal - Kalaari Capital.

Kavin Bharti Mittal, Founder & CEO, Hike, "Gaming to us has always been a new, bite-sized source of entertainment for the masses. As we unbundle Hike, we think of our investment in WinZO and its stellar team as a strong bet in the segment. WinZO’s deep understanding of the market has enabled them to build a unique product in this space and we’re excited to partner with them in their next phase of growth."

The funding came within a few days after WinZO announced a $1.5Mn fund to support game developers and acquire content for the platform.

Founded by Paavan Nanda and Saumya Singh Rathore, WinZO is a vernacular esports gaming platform that is competitive, inclusive, and for everyone. The games on the platform provide bite-sized action in multiplayer or player vs player format, taking esports and social gaming experience to the vernacular Bharat. WinZO is a series A funded venture and is Kalaari’s second biggest bet in the gaming category after Dream11.

Since its inception, WinZO has gone on to have more than 7 Million registered users across Tier 2/3/4/5 cities. Average Users are currently spending more than 55 minutes inside the app every day. With strong signs of stickiness, the top 20% of the users are already spending 60% of their smartphone usage time on the platform. WinZO currently accounts for 38% of their monthly entertainment budget, popular games on the platform include Carrom, Cricket, Pocket Tank, Fruit Samurai, etc.

“WinZO’s social multi-player skill gaming platform is a one stop entertainment destination for Bharat. We have been receiving phenomenal traction, and are very excited to emerge as India’s most loved household brand for the next 100MM users.” said Paavan Nanda, Co-Founder, WinZO

WinZO is India’s largest e-sports vernacular gaming platform with monetary benefits and is available in 10 languages. It gives users an opportunity to win real money for playing and winning these Games of Skill. The platform offers nearly 30+ games across multiple formats viz Tournament, Versus Mode and Table Format. On a single platform users, can play all popular games such as Carrom, Cricket, 8 Ball Pool, Sniper 3D, Bubble Shooter, Fruit Samurai, Knife Up, Fantasy League, and Trivia based questions. These games are acquired from developers and studios from across the world. WinZO is designed to solve for a stable monetization in the Indian Gaming ecosystem, which experiences one of the highest engagements globally with 300MM internet users spending 45 minutes daily playing games on their smartphones.

Paavan is a graduate from IIM Calcutta and was a Co-Founder of ZO Rooms/ Zostel. While Saumya did her Masters in Consumer Psychology, had led Growth for the Television Business of the Times Group and ZO Rooms earlier.

Hike Acquires Bengaluru-based Startup Creo

Hike Messenger, a cross-platform instant messaging service for smartphones from India, on Friday announced the acquisition of Bengaluru-based startup Creo, a smartphone and media streaming technology startup Creo.

Notably, Creo was IndianWeb2's pick for 2016's most innovative startups from Bengaluru.

The startup which has, last year, launched its flagship product - Mark 1, an Android-based smartphone device, is founded by Sai Srinivas Kiran G and Shubham Malhotra in December 2013. Hike started associating with Creo as the company became part of a mentoring programme run by Hike CEO and founder Kavin Bharti Mittal (in pic above).



In the past, the startup has also launched hardware products that include streaming media dongles (Teewee) and smartphones.

According to the Hike spokesperson, "The Creo team will begin work on a developer platform to enable third party developers to build services on the Hike platform"

"To build our next product, we need all the focus and good luck we can. Owing to this, we will no longer be making new CREO Mark1 devices or releasing any software updates," announced Creo, on its website.

The company further added - "The Creo customer helpline, the CREO Facebook page and Twitter handles will also be available until 1st March 2018."

The Creo team constitutes over 50 members and what will happen to the team is still to be announced by the companies.

Hike Messenger, which started operation in 2012, has now acquired a user base of over 100 million in January 2016. In August 2016, Hike raised its fourth round of funding of $175 million led by Tencent and Foxconn at a valuation of $1.4 billion, making it the fastest company in the India to attain a valuation of $1 billion.

Today, Hike has over 300 employees spread across two offices in Delhi and Bengaluru.

Top Image - Hike CEO-Founder Kavin Bharti Mittal

India's Messaging App Hike Acquires US-Based Zip Phone

India's only homegrown chat application Hike has announced today that it has acquired US-based and Y Combinator-backed voice-calling startup Zip Phone for an undisclosed amount. This is Hike's first ever acquisition and is aimed at expanding its product range in the internet-based communication space.

Zip Phone, a one-man startup founded by Anuj Jain in the US, has developed a voice-calling app, which works globally. Interestingly, the company was also part of the revered Y Combinator list Summer Batch (2014).

Commenting on the growth and acquisition, Kavin Bharti Mittal, Founder and CEO, hike messenger, says, "From day one we've strongly believed that through communication, we can bring India online. With the acquisition we take one more step towards that mission. Zip Phone’s technology will allow us to bring free voice calling to the market much faster. Incidentally, this is one of the top requested features from our users as well. We can’t wait to launch this."

Anuj Jain, Founder, Zip Phone says, "As a start-up enthusiast, I had been keeping a close eye on hike and its developments and I am excited to now be a part of one of the biggest and fastest growing startups in the Indian Internet space and finally, building for India."

Launched in December 2012, hike has over 35M users and has raised $86M from Tiger Global and BSB till date. The app also boasts of a fairly young user base with over 90% of its users being under the age of 25 and residing in India. The chat application has localized features, which are developed keeping in mind the infrastructural and cultural requirements such as Hike Offline – lets you message your friends even when they’re offline, Hidden Mode – allows users to hide their private chats with a password, amongst many others.

Hike's Journey:

• Dec, 2012: Global launch


• Feb 2013: Messaging traffic grows 10X week on week


• April 2013: Hits the first 5M user milestone in just 4 months of its launch  | Raised $7M from BSB


• June 2013: Stickers are on hike!


• Aug 2013: Digital ad campaign goes live


• Nov 2013: Co-creation exercise with users – including real-time feedback from the users for product development


• Dec 2013: Hike turns 1 year old! Launches two-way Chat Themes


• Feb 2014: Hit the 15M user mark


• April 2014: Receives $14M fresh funding from BSB


• June 2014: Crossed 20M user mark, launched TVC


• July 2014: Hit #1 rank on App stores


• August 2014: Crosses 35M user mark, receives $65M fresh funding led by Tiger Global


• November 2014: Regional stickers on hike!


• January 2015: Acquired voice-calling company Zip Phone