Indian instant messaging app Hike has raised $65m in a round of funding led by Tiger Global, a New York based investment firm, to improve its service and user base.
Bharti SoftBank, a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Japan’s SoftBank, and Hike’s parent company, also participated in the funding, which Hike aims to use to fill the gaps that exist in the massaging market in India.
The developer of the instant message service plan to use the fund to further develop the product and introduce new features like hiding conversations, and it also plans to use some proceeds to hire new talents.
With 55 million users in India, Hike competes with messaging giants like WhatsApp and Line.
Hike allows users to communicate with other Hike users via free SMS, and non-Hike uses can also reply to Hike users through SMS, a feature that provides Hike and advantage against its foreign competitors.
Reportedly India has 900 million mobile users and around 10% of the phones used are smartphones, which gives a chance for apps like Hike to expand its business in the country.
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