Kavin Bharti Mittal is an Indian internet entrepreneur primarily known for his role as the founder and CEO of Hike, the company behind the unicorn Hike Messenger and the Rush Gaming Universe (RGU), a mobile gaming application.
1987
Mittal was born on 30 August 1987 in Delhi, India.
He is the son of entrepreneur Sunil Mittal.
He graduated in Electronics and Electrical Engineering from the University of York and completed his Master's in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and Management from the Imperial College London.
Kavin interned at McLaren Racing, Google and Goldman Sachs while studying at Imperial College London.
At McLaren Racing, he helped the Formula1 team embed a technology that would show the track flags on steering wheels.
2012
After moving back to India, Mittal founded Hike in 2012 as an Indian internet company that developed social communication and entertainment products.
From 2012 to 2018, Hike built the Hike Messenger SuperApp centered around messaging to bring India, a mobile-first population, online.
2016
Mittal was also a part of 35 under 35 Entrepreneur magazine 2016 list.
2017
Kavin Mittal was featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2017.
2018
At its peak in 2018, Hike had reached more than 30 million monthly active users and had raised over $250 million in capital from investors such as Tiger Global, Tencent, SoftBank and Foxconn.
2019
In 2019, Hike decided to shut down the app citing that the market dynamic had shifted with cheaper data coming in and smartphone prices dipping sharply.
According to Mittal, the smartphone itself was now a SuperApp, undercutting the need for a SuperApp like Hike in the Indian market.
After Hike's closure, Mittal pivoted the company to focus on building the Rush Gaming Universe, a mobile gaming application.
In August 2021, they announced an undisclosed round of funding led by Tinder cofounder Justin Mateen.
The round also saw participation from SoftBank Vision Fund CEO Rajeev Misra, Tinder co-founder Sean Rad, Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, CRED founder Kunal Shah, and others.
In February 2022, Mittal announced that Polygon had joined Hike's list of investors and partners, with the Rush Gaming Universe confirming its rumored plans for blockchain gaming.
In May 2022, Mittal's Hike announced an undisclosed round of funding from web3 investors Jump Capital, Tribe Capital, and Republic Crypto, the blockchain investment arm of Republic Capital.
