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OvumThe Indian messaging app Hike raised $175 million in a series D round of funding led by Tencent and Foxconn, with previous investors including Bharti SoftBank and Tiger Global.
This additional round of funding values Hike at $1.4 billion. The messaging app is focused primarily on the Indian market and is estimated to have more than 100 million registered users. However, WhatsApp is the leading messaging app in India with substantially more than 100 million monthly active users, leaving Hike fighting it out for second place with Facebook Messenger and Viber.
Hike and Tencent join forces to take on WhatsApp
India is a key market for messaging apps given the large emerging mobile population and also the mobile-first nature of the market, which means the mobile phone is the primary device for a range of digital services including revenue generating services such as e-commerce. Therefore, India is an important market not just for messaging apps with ambitions to become platforms...