Hike Strengthens its Leadership Team

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Announces appointment of Vidur Vyas as VP Marketing and Sumit Mehra as Studio Head

Hike messenger, one of India’s fastest growing Internet companies, announced the appointment of Vidur Vyas, VP-Marketing and Sumit Mehra as Studio Head. Vidur will be spearheading Hike’s marketing initiatives, brand positioning and strategic alliances; while Sumit will be responsible for driving game strategy, development and production. Both Vidur and Sumit will be reporting to Kavin Mittal, CEO & Founder Hike.

The company is looking at beefing up its presence in the high – growth IM space at the back of its recently announced integration with Hoppr and Tiny Mogul. Towards attaining its mission to bring billions online, the company is envisioning and expanding the IM landscape by offering its users much more than simple messaging. And to accomplish the mission the company is all set to strengthen its leadership team, earlier this year Hike announced the appointment of its new HR Head as well.

Speaking on the appointment, Kavin Mittal, Founder and CEO, hike, said, “I’m excited to add Vidur and Sumit to our leadership team. It’s great to see such strong leaders in the industry share our vision to bring India online. I look forward to working with them and leveraging their experience to build hike into a world class product and a brand that is loved by millions in India.”

On assuming the role, Vidur Vyas, VP, Marketing at Hike, said, “Hike is a fun, innovative and culturally relevant brand. I am excited by the opportunity to connect India online in a fun way and Hike is uniquely positioned to capture that opportunity.”

Sumit Mehra, Studio Head, Hike, said, “Great games make people smile and for game developers that’s the final goal. When I met Kavin and heard his vision of a digitally connected India; I saw an opportunity to deliver millions of smiles a day. He and his team are doing some amazing work with Hike Messenger and I’m excited to partner with them to bring great game experiences on Hike. For me there can’t be a bigger challenge and a more exciting mission to do this here in India and for India.”

With a career spanning over 18 years, Vidur was a Senior Director of Marketing at Pepsico India. He brings extensive experience in brand building and was responsible for driving nutrition and beverage portfolio for Pepsico India. He led health and wellness initiatives for Pepsico and launched Quaker Oats in India. He also led the integration of Tropicana with Brand Slice. Additionally he was responsible for building campaigns for culturally relevant brands like Lay’s, Kurkure’s “Tedha Hai Par Mera Hai”, Kurkure family campaign, Lay’s Flavor World Cup amongst other successful innovative campaigns. He has also worked at Accenture Consulting and Colgate Palmolive in the past.

Sumit started working as a game developer in 1999, and later went on to work with companies like Microsoft Games Studio, EA Games, Jump Games and Zynga. Before joining Hike, he was GM of the New IP division at Zynga and was responsible for the successful launch of Zynga India’s maiden New IP Game – Hidden Shadows.

Hike has has been operational in the Gaming space for over two years with its studio Tiny Mogul Games launching more than twelve games for Android including Shiva: The Time Bender, which was one of the first Indian games to be featured by Google Play globally, and Dadi vs Jellies, which won the Game of the Year award at the Nasscom Game Developer Conference in 2014.

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