Catholic app Hallow and Mark Wahlberg launch partnership

Catholic prayer and meditation app Hallow has launched a partnership with actor Mark Wahlberg, who is the biggest name yet to provide exclusive content to the Chicago-based startup.

Hallow, the world’s most downloaded and used Catholic app, has released a new set of resources in conjunction with the actor’s latest film, “Father Stu,” which hits theaters on Wednesday. Wahlberg put his own money into producing the film based on the father’s true story. Stuart Long, a boxer turned priest. with Mel Gibson.

Although Wahlberg is a devout Catholic and hasn’t been shy about sharing his faith, “Father Stu” is his first religious project. So when the founders of Hallow – who are big fans of Wahlberg – heard about it, they reached out to him to find out how they could help people discover the movie while helping people get into the habit more broadly. to pray daily.

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“I was really inspired by her openness to sharing her faith, her morning prayer routine,” Hallow co-founder Alex Jones told FOX Business of Wahlberg. “He gave a good deal of talk about how important his faith was to him throughout his career.”

Mario Lopez attends the 92nd Annual Academy Awards on February 09, 2020 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic/Getty Images)

Jones says the deal with Wahlberg is arguably the biggest and most expansive partnership Hallow has entered into recently, but the app has partnered with a handful of other high-profile players, starting with Jonathan Roumi, who plays Jesus in “The Chosen”, and is one of their main content creators. Actor Mario Lopez also created content for the app.

Hallow has had a meteoric rise since its founding in 2018 by Jones, Erich Kerekes and Alessandro DiSanto.

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A year ago, the app raised $12 million in a Series A round led by venture capital firm General Catalyst, and it secured another $40 million after a Series B round that included billionaire investors like Peter Thiel, Drive Capital, Teamworthy Ventures, Narya VC, Contrary Capital, Uncork Capital, Susa Ventures and Scott Malpass – the only American named by Pope Francis to serve on the board of the Vatican Bank.

Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies and Founders Fund, speaks during the Bitcoin 2022 Conference at the Miami Beach Convention Center on April 7, 2022 in Miami, Florida. (Marco Bello/Getty Images)

To date, the app has had approximately 2.5 million downloads, with 65 million prayers completed with a 700% year-over-year growth in sessions completed.

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However, Hallow did not only appeal to Catholics. Jones says they hear from tons of customers from different faiths beyond other Christian faiths — including Jewish, Muslim, and agnostic users — who use the app to find peace or deepen their spirituality. When they checked a few months ago, the user who performed the most prayers on the app was an evangelical woman.

“It’s just a blessing to be able to travel alongside people and see God working,” Jones said of Hallow’s success. “He did, obviously, all the heavy lifting here.”