We’re thrilled to share a ton of great news for the Hallow mission! We just passed 1.5 million downloads, 25 million prayers completed, 35,000 five star reviews, raised additional funding from some phenomenal new partners, added some world-class folks to our advisory board, and are hiring for a bunch of great new roles!
It is incredibly humbling to think of how far God has taken our mission of prayer in such a short time (for those who haven’t heard the Hallow story, it’s here). Getting to journey alongside the Hallow community on the path to finding peace in God is the great privilege of our lives. And the stories that fellow community members have shared remind us each day of the amazing work that God is doing through this mission:
“Hallow, through God, has changed my life! I was on the brink of depression then I discovered meditation and your app and… I’m a different person. It’s such a beautiful feeling to feel happy, whole, abundant…free from chains of addiction, anger, resentment, sadness… I can’t even describe it!”
Praise God. The last two and a half years have been an unbelievable ride. But the exciting news is that we’re just getting started: we’re growing as fast as we ever have with 700% more prayers started on the app this month than during the same time last year.
And that means we have a lot more work to do. We believe that the idea behind Hallow – re-introducing the world to the beauty, peace, and centuries-old traditions of the Church’s spirituality – has the opportunity to change the world.
More than ever, our world is tired. We’re exhausted by the pandemic, tired of politics, depressed by the suffering and pain in the world, stressed with juggling child care and work, made anxious by our addictions, large and small. We are looking for rest, for peace, for a light amidst all of this darkness.
The good news is that we believe there is a place to find this light: in silence.
“In the silence of the heart God speaks. If you face God in prayer and silence, God will speak to you… Souls of prayer are souls of great silence”
Mother Teresa
And it is in that silence and prayer, that God is reaching out to each of us – to those of us who are already praying each day but feel like we’re just going through the motions, to those of us who have fallen away from our faith, to those of us who might be interested in spirituality, but have never tried to pray, to those of us struggling with stress and anxiety or wading through grief and loss, God is there. He’s knocking on the door of our hearts – inviting us into a real and life-changing relationship with Him, inviting us into His peace.
I’m incredibly proud of the Hallow team for what they’ve been able to add to the app so quickly: meditations on the Daily Gospel, Daily Saint, Daily Rosary, Fr. Mike’s Bible in a Year, Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermons, peaceful music & Gregorian Chant, Mental Health content from Sister Miriam & Dr. Bob Schuchts, an Audio Bible by Jonathan Roumie from The Chosen, Novenas by Dr. Scott Hahn & Leah Darrow, community challenges & prayer groups, and Bible Stories for Sleep from Bobby & Jackie Angel, Chris Stefanick, Jason Evert, Emily Wilson, Fr. Mark-Mary, Matt Fradd, David Henrie, Dr. Sri, Fr. Josh Johnson, Lizzie Velasquez, Laura Fanucci, and so many more. But we still have so much to do.
Every day, we get an enormous number of requests from Hallow community members for more beautiful prayer and meditation content, more ways to connect as a community, more partnerships with amazing mission-driven creators, and especially for more languages and guide options.
Today, we’re excited to share that we’ve partnered with some amazing investors (Drive Capital, Peter Thiel, Susa Ventures, Teamworthy Ventures, Uncork Capital, Narya VC, Contrary Capital, General Catalyst, Jim Perry, and Scott Malpass – the only American appointed by Pope Francis to sit on the board of the Vatican Bank) in a new $40 million round of funding for Hallow. This Series B funding follows our $12 million Series A earlier this year led by General Catalyst, bringing the total raised this year to $52 million.
With this new funding, we’re thrilled to be able to invest more quickly in building out a world-class app, adding more Hallow content, and in making more of the content available for free. We continue to build out a world-class, mission-driven team (we’re hiring!!), and to invest in reaching out to a broader audience of folks, not just those who go to Mass every week, but to anyone who’s searching for God – especially those who may have fallen away from their faith.
Every decision we’ve made, from our structure as a public-benefit corporation to our pricing model to this new round of funding, has been the result of deep prayer and consultation with our spiritual advisors to further our mission of helping the world to grow closer to God.
In the spirit of this prayerful discernment and guidance, we’re thrilled to also be able to share our new advisory board led by Bishop Kevin Rhoades and made up of amazing folks like Fr. Kevin Grove & Dr. John Cavadini from the University of Notre Dame, Fr. Mike Schmitz, Fr. Steve Gunrow from Word on Fire, Scott Malpass, Dean Abela from the Catholic University of America, Laura Fanucci, Lisa Hendey, and Sr. Jaime Mitchell.
In building Hallow, our first goal is to act as a tool for the Church’s mission. We’ll continue to rely heavily on this board to make sure that Hallow always stays 100% authentically Catholic and aligned with the Church.
We believe there are a lot more people out there searching for a connection to something bigger, for a deeper sense of peace, or for a closer relationship with God. If we can help just one of them to start a conversation with God – to discover His love and His peace – it will have all been worth it.
