Messaging app Hike gets $7-m funding

Bharti Softbank (BSB), a joint venture between Bharti and SoftBank, announced $7 million fresh investment in ‘hike’, a free instant messaging application similar to Whatsapp. Hike crossed five million users in four months since its launch in December. The app is available globally on iOS, Android, WP & S40. The company also recently launched ‘hike’ for BlackBerry beta. While there are a number of other players in this segment, BSB’s messaging service allows users to communicate over SMS as well as data networks.