New Delhi-based messaging app Hike Messenger posted a loss of ₹399.58 crore in FY18, nearly doubling from previous year’s ₹212.77 crore, according to the filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).
Things don’t look so good for Kavin Bharti Mittal-led Hike as it fails to generate revenues, while net expenditure nearly doubles to ₹439.92 crore in FY18, from ₹245.66 crore during the previous fiscal.
Hike generated an operational revenue of ₹50.9 lakh in FY18, compared to zero operational revenue during the previous fiscal. The messenger posted a profit of ₹38.76 crore from the sale of mutual funds during FY18. The messenger slightly increased overall income to ₹39.64 crore in FY18, from ₹32.9 crore in FY17.
Founded by Kavin Bharti Mittal, son of Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, in 2012, Hike enables users to connect with each other through messages, supporting various Indian languages like Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, Gujarati, Bengali, along with English.
The messenger expanded its product offering to include cab, bus, and train bookings, after adding digital wallet support on its platform.
In August 2016, Hike last raised $175 million in a series D funding round led by Tencent Holdings and Foxconn Technology Group, making Hike one of the earliest unicorn in the Indian startup ecosystem.
Hike counts investors like Softbank, and Tiger Global Management among is backers.
The New Delhi-based messenger has raised a total of around $260 million across all funding rounds, according to Crunchbase.
Another major player competing with Hike, in the Indian market is Facebook-owned WhatsApp. WhatsApp has more than 200 million users in India, while Hike had 100 million in 2016.