The Spanish startup hello.app, one of the first companies in the world that pays users in exchange for the storage space of their personal mobile devices (phones, tablets, or laptops), has raised a seed funding round of €500k reaching a €16 million valuation. The round included the participation of several investors and private capital based throughout Europe, as well as some of the current partners. Among them are private investors like Gerald Heydenreich, founder of Ethermail, David Holtmann, and Albert Bonet, among others.
The funds raised will be used for the development and launch of the app on iOS and Android, along with the activation of the “contribution node” function to consolidate itself as the first app in the world that pays its users in exchange for the unused storage space of their mobile devices.
This operation adds to the investment round of €170k closed with investors such as Iese, Esade, Castiventures, and Bcombinator, and a loan of 130,000 euros from the National Innovation Company (Enisa).
The company, founded by the young entrepreneur Álvaro Pintado Santaularia (19 years old) and which began operations in 2022, already has nearly 200k users from more than 200 countries, and aims to reach 3 million users by 2025.
hello.app’s value proposition is based on addressing the limitations of traditional Web2 storage solutions and positioning itself as a Web3 alternative to popular centralized cloud giants like Dropbox or Google. They allow their users to earn an extra source of income by “renting out” the storage space of their devices.
“We have taken the system of successful companies like Airbnb or Uber and applied it to data storage,” said Álvaro Pintado, CEO of hello.app. “In a short time, computers like our phones, iPads, or laptops will be able to replace large centralized server farms with distributed storage, which means, on the one hand, that those who own these farms will become increasingly dispensable, and on the other, that whoever manages to build the first decentralized and collaborative computing and storage network based on the devices we already have, will be unstoppable.”
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2024/07/barcelona-based-hello-app-raises-e500k-to-pay-its-users-in-exchange-for-storage-space-on-their-devices/
