Hike Private Limited, an early investor in social gaming platform WinZO, has recently exited the firm after the startup made four-fold returns on the messaging platform developer’s investment of USD 5 million that it made in a Series A funding round back in 2019.

Sources close to the matter cited that with the approval from the Ministry of corporate affairs, WinZO initiated a share buy-back transaction with Hike for USD 12 million.

The move comes after the three-year-old gaming startup raised additional capital of USD 13 million from Series B investors, namely, Singapore-based global interactive entertainment investor Makers Fund, Bain Capital’s co-chair and co-owner of NBA Celtics Stephan Pagliuca, and New York-based Courtside ventures.

For the record, together with the three investors and the game developer Epic Games had also made their first investment in India in the previous year through WinZO’s USD 18 million series B fundraise.

The latest additional funds come in a short span of just six months, highlighting Series B investors’ confidence and faith in the company’s vision and strength.

WinZO co-founder Paavan Nanda reportedly said that Hike has been given a complete exit from the company and the founders are pleased and humbled to have a board that is enormously bullish and in sync with the daring goals that the organization has set. They had immensely supported the company through the process, he added.

It is worth noting that Hike had declared the shutting down of its primary messaging business earlier this year, and launched a competitor to WinZo named Rush. However, WinZO, post the backing of Series B round, had overlooked the non-compete agreement for Hike together with relinquishing access to the board and the company.

WinZO has witnessed unprecedented growth throughout last year during the ongoing covid-19 pandemic as it continues to empower its stakeholders by democratizing entrepreneurship among the content creators, content translators, and game developers.

Source Credits –

https://www.financialexpress.com/brandwagon/winzo-bids-adieu-to-to-hike-after-a-12-million-share-buyback/2244926/