WinZO has given a complete exit to its early investor Hike with four fold returns on their investment in May 2019 as per WinZO’s media release. 

WinZO co-founder Paavan Nanda, said, “That’s correct. Hike’s been given a complete exit from WinZO. As founders, we are super chuffed and humbled to have a board that is extremely bullish, and completely aligned with the audacious goals we have set for ourselves. They had immensely supported the company through the process.”

This exit transaction, which has received a nod from the Ministry of corporate affairs (MCA), witnessed WinZO buy back Hike’s share for $12 million, making it one of the largest buy back transactions by an early stage start-up in the Indian start-up ecosystem. Hike had earlier participated in the $5 Million Series-A funding in WinZO back in 2019 and has received 4X returns within a span of 18 months.

Earlier this year, Hike had announced shutting down its primary messaging business and launched a conflicting gaming app Rush, similar to WinZO. Post Series B in September 2020, WinZO had reportedly waived off the non-compete for Hike alongside withdrawing access to the board and the Company.

This comes after the Series B funded gaming start-up WinZO raised additional $13 million capital from its existing investors- Stephan Pagliuca, Makers Fund, and Courtside Venture. It is noteworthy that these investors had led the $18 Million Series B fund raise for WinZO in September 2020, taking the total fund raise tally for the three year old startup to $38MM.