Hike messenger ropes in senior executives from Amazon India, Unilever

Hike messenger, the instant messaging mobile and calling application, Tuesday strengthened its leadership team with the appointment of Hemant Goyal as VP of Finance and Gautam Vohra as its General Counsel.

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Hemant and Gautam take charge at a time when hike readies for the next phase of growth in India’s fast growing mobile internet market. The appointments will help the company take on bigger rivals like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger in the fast growing communications app space in India and worldwide.

The company has been building its leadership team as it continues to innovate in the hyper competitive messaging space. A few months back, it roped in former PepsiCo marketing director Vidur Vyas as vice-president, marketing, and former general manager of Zynga Games – Sumit Mehra – as its studio head.

Both Goyal and Vohra will be reporting to the company’s founder and CEO Kavin Bharti Mittal. “With Hemant and Gaurav on board, we add a strong financial and legal foundation to our leadership team. Both Hemant and Gaurav bring incredible cross-domain experience in their respective fields and we are excited to have them on join us,” Mittal commented on the appointments.

Prior to Hike, Goyal was serving Unilever Singapore, where he was Finance Director for Global Supply Chain. He served Unilever for over 12 years in various roles and across geographies including India and Europe. Before Unilever, he was with Tata Motors.

“I’m excited about the umpteen possibilities to be explored within hike and I look forward to sharing my experiences and contributing to the future direction and growth of one of India’s fastest growing internet companies,” Goyal said in a statement.

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Vohra, one of the leading legal experts in technology and intellectual property matters, will help Hike focus on building the legal, compliance and policy functions as the company expands to the next level of growth in India and envision a global footprint. Before Hike, Vohra served Amazon India as their Principle Legal Counsel.

“I’m thrilled to be a part of the organization at a time when the company is well-positioned to tap new possibilities during this time of ever evolving mobile-first rather mobile only world,” Vohra commented on his appointment.

The app crossed 70 million users in September and the company expects to start generating revenue in 12-18 months, Mittal recently told reporters.