Hotstar’s Seema Chawla to head marketing at Hike

Homegrown internet startup Hike announced the appointment of Seema Chawla as its VP and head of marketing. Chawla joins the unicorn as it inches closer to unveiling its new product HikeLand. With over 20 years of multi-vertical experience she has launched multiple new brands and products in the course of her career across Disney, Ajio.com, Mattel, and Hotstar. Her appointment is in line with Hike’s plan to strengthen teams across product, design, marketing, AI - ML, engineering, partner functions, and user research with multiple hiring initiatives. She will be reporting directly to Kavin Bharti Mittal, founder and CEO, Hike.

“What got me wildly excited about coming to Hike was Kavin’s vision on building a new social future. As technology blurs the line between imagination and what’s possible, Hike is perhaps the only company innovating at the intersection of Art, AI and consumer delight. I’m excited to join a team that’s changing the way users experience social and will forever change the way they hang out online. We’re building things right out of science-fiction movies and that’s really thrilling. I’m truly energized to be part of this journey along with the entire team at Hike,” said, Chawla on her move.

In her new role, she would be looking after all things marketing at Hike including branding, user growth, and product marketing for HikeLand and all subsequent sub-brands. In her previous stints, Chawla has been VP Marketing at Hotstar International, chief marketing officer at AJIO.com, head of Marketing at Mattel Toys India, and has held various strategic brand, marketing, and sales roles at The Walt Disney Company.

Working towards the launch and scale of its upcoming offering HikeLand, Hike plans to hire for over 20 open positions across teams. Hike has also initiated virtual hiring events as part of its ZeroTo2 program focused on onboarding young talent from colleges.

In August 2016, Hike became the 10th Indian startup to be valued at over $1 billion. Hike has raised over $261 million in capital from top-tier investors such as SoftBank, Tiger Global, Tencent, Foxconn, Bharti, among others.