Hike Messenger raises $175 mn

It is led by Tencent, Foxconn

Messaging platform Hike Messenger on Tuesday said it has raised $175 million in a new round of funding led by Tencent Holdings and Foxconn Technology Group, valuing the company at about $1.4 billion.

Existing investors — Tiger Global, Bharti and Softbank Group — also participated in this round. “We will be investing this amount in services, people, office space and some long term bets in areas of machine learning, computer vision,” Kavin Mittal, Founder and CEO of messaging app, told reporters here.

This is the fourth venture capital round and the biggest to date for Hike, a company founded by Kavin Bharti Mittal, son of Bharti Enterprises Chairman Sunil Mittal. The latest round of funding takes the total investment to over $250 million so far.

“We will be investing this amount in services, people, office space and some long term bets in areas of machine learning, computer vision,” he said.

Hike was launched in December 12, 2012, as a separate entity from his father's Bharti Enterprises. In January 2016, Hike had announced it has a base of 100 million users.