CHICAGO, May 18, 2023 — Last week Hallow passed 10 million downloads and 225 million prayers prayed globally, becoming the largest prayer app in the world according to Sensor Tower. Following the app’s tremendous growth on Ash Wednesday of 2023, Hallow was also the first faith-based app to ever crack the top 10 apps in the App Store coming in at #3 overall – beating Netflix, Spotify, Instagram, Amazon, Tiktok, YouTube and so many more of the largest apps in the world. It took Hallow almost two years to reach 1 million prayers prayed on the app, but this past Lent members of the Hallow community prayed over a million prayers every day.
Despite the difficult market for startup funding, the app has also just announced the close of an additional $50 million in Series C funding bringing the total funding raised for Hallow to $105 million. The round was led by Goodwater Capital, the largest consumer tech-only venture fund in the world. Founded by two men of faith, the mission of Goodwater Capital is rooted in Micah 6:8: “to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.” The etymology of Goodwater is the combination of Good News and Living Water, reflecting their mission to empower entrepreneurs to change the world for good. Also participating in the round are Highland Capital, Colin Moran, and several of Hallow’s existing investors.
“In our quest to partner with the most impactful consumer tech companies in the world, Hallow’s spiritual based services have reached consumer engagement and retention levels shared by only a few companies throughout time. More importantly, we’re honored to support Hallow’s mission and in my own personal experience, praying more with Hallow has catalyzed profound positive change in my life.”
– Eric Kim, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Goodwater Capital
Hallow has also recently partnered with several well known celebrities and faith leaders including the actor Jonathan Roumie, Fr. Mike Schmitz, Bishop Robert Barron, Sister Miriam James-Heidland, Mario Lopez, and Mark Wahlberg.
“My faith has always been an incredibly important part of my life and when the opportunity to collaborate with Hallow came up I knew it was what I wanted to jump in to. My family and I love praying with the app and we’ve gotten such great stories from people whose lives have been changed through the app. Prayer can do powerful things.”
– Mark Wahlberg
Hallow is hiring for several new roles as a result of the round. In commenting on the round, Hallow CEO and Co-Founder Alex Jones said:
“This round and these milestones are exciting. We’re thrilled to partner together with mission-driven partners, team members, and creators to invest even more heavily in building an experience that helps the world to build a daily habit of prayer. But with each of these milestones, something has become more and more clear over time.
This is not why we do this. The numbers are not what we’re working for. It’s not the vision for Hallow.
The vision for Hallow is not numbers, but individuals – not millions of downloads, but each one of us as children of God. The vision for Hallow is Sarah.
Sarah is a young married mom of three little girls. She became tragically addicted to alcohol and stimulants and was involved in a longstanding affair. She’d never really taken her faith very seriously. Her husband found out about the affair and left. She was alone, ashamed, and depressed – thinking often she’d be better off dead. She saw a post about the app and something moved her. She figured she might as well give it a try. She realized, she told us, that in her darkest hour – when everyone she knew had left, everything she cared about had been destroyed – that the only person there with her in the darkness was Christ. She began praying with the app over a dozen times a day. And in her words, He picked her broken pieces up off the floor and put her together again. She cut off the affair. She got sober for the first time in years. She prayed for her husband’s miraculous forgiveness and, in his own experience in adoration, he forgave her. Their family has been reunited.
She told us, ‘I know you probably get these stories all the time, but I just wanted to let you know, that if you never do anything else in your life, please know that you saved me. I don’t think I’d be standing here alive today if it were not for this app and the grace that God gave me through it.’
This is why we do this. This is what we’re working for. This is the vision for Hallow.
If we spend the next 30 years and are able to be a part of just one more person like Sarah’s journey back to God, if we help God reach out to just one more of His lost ones…then it will have all been infinitely worth it.
And I don’t think Sarah is alone. I think there are millions and millions of Sarah’s. Honestly, I think we’re all a bit like Sarah in our own way. We’re all a little lost. We’re all a little stuck. We’re all a little bit further from God than He invites us to be.
But our faith is one of hope. And if there’s anything that this experience has taught me, it’s that there is no valley that God cannot reach. There is no darkness that the Light cannot overcome.
I cannot wait to see what He does next.”
– Alex Jones, CEO of Hallow
Note: Sarah’s name has been anonymized for privacy
For more information, visit www.hallow.com. To schedule an interview, please contact Taylor Buckley (219-789-7182 or [email protected]).
About Hallow
Hallow is a Public Benefit Corporation whose goal is to help people deepen their relationship with God through audio-guided prayers, sleep meditations, Bible readings, meditations, and music. The app has over 10,000 sessions, including a daily Rosary with Mark Wahlberg, daily Gospel, daily saint, novenas, examens, Father Mike Schmitz’s Bible in a Year, Jonathan Roumie’s audio Bible, Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermons, peaceful Christian music, Gregorian chant, mental health meditations, prayers for kids, and so much more. Launched in December 2018, Hallow is now the #1 Christian prayer app in the world. It has been used to pray over 225 million times across 150-plus countries.
SOURCE Hallow
