New Delhi, Sep 13 : Kavin Bharti Mittal, son of Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal, has announced the shutdown of his startup Hike after India's blanket ban on real-money gaming.

The decision marks the end of a venture that once began as a messaging app to rival WhatsApp and later pivoted to gaming through its platform Rush.

In a note shared on Substack, Mittal said, 'After regrouping with our investors and the team, I've made the difficult decision to wind down Hike completely.'

He added that although Hike's US business, launched just nine months ago, was showing strong growth, the India ban made global scaling difficult.

'Scaling globally would require a full recap, a reset that is not the best use of capital or time,' he explained.

Hike had about 100 employees working across India, the US, Dubai, and Singapore, functioning in small, highly skilled teams that Mittal described as 'SWAT teams.'

The company had initially started as a messaging app in 2016 but shut it down in January 2021, shifting its focus to casual real-money gaming.

Rush, its flagship platform, offered 14 mobile games with money-based play and integrated Web3 features like user ownership and play-to-earn mechanics.

The company was backed by some of the biggest global investors, including SoftBank, Tencent, Tiger Global, Bharti, Foxconn, Jump Crypto, Tribe Capital, Republic, and Polygon.

Prominent individual investors such as Rajeev Misra, Elad Gil, and Zynga founder Mark Pincus were also on board.

Rush had seen significant traction in India, with 10 million users and over $500 million in gross revenue in just four years.

The platform claimed more than 5 million players across its games and reported yearly winnings of around $480 million.

Despite these achievements, the sudden ban on real-money gaming in India forced Mittal to shut operations.

Calling it both a 'disappointment' and a 'hard outcome,' he said he remains optimistic. 'The learnings are invaluable, and my conviction for what's next is even stronger,' he wrote.

/IANS