New Delhi, May 3 (IANS): Vernacular social gaming platform WinZO on Monday said it has bought back early investor Hikes shares for $12 million, making it one of the largest buyback transactions by an early stage firm in the Indian start-up ecosystem.

The move gives a complete exit to Hike with four-fold returns on their investment in May 2019.

Hike participated in the $5 million Series A funding in WinZO in 2019 and has received 4 times returns within a span of 18 months, the company said in a statement.

The gaming startup recently raised additional $13 million from its existing investors Stephan Pagliuca, Makers Fund, and Courtside Venture, taking to total raised value to $18 billion in its Series B round.

"Hike's been given a complete exit from WinZO. As founders, we are 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," said Paavan Nanda, the Co-Founder of WinZO.

Earlier this year, Hike announced shutting down its primary messaging business and launched a rival gaming app Rush, similar to WinZO.

The move came after the the gaming start-up raised additional $13 million capital from its existing investors Stephan Pagliuca, Makers Fund and Courtside Venture.

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 $38 million.

WinZO recently announced a game developer fund-II of a $5 million corpus after its series B fund raise.

It has also announced initiatives to groom the aspiring content creators through structured training programmes.

WinZO hosts more than 80 games served in five formats to the users in over 12 regional languages.