Newchip Accelerator announces Hallo as 1st startup graduate in Puerto Rico
Hallo, the all-inclusive marketplace platform for on-demand services in local areas, was named as the first Puerto Rico startup to graduate from Newchip’s global accelerator program.
The program is designed to groom early-stage startup founders to achieve rapid funding, building, and scaling for their companies. Past accelerator cohorts averaged more than 17.5 times the average funding amount, the entity said.
The equity-free, fully digital accelerator has helped more than 1,000 founders from 35+ countries raise more than $300 million in funding.
In an email sent to Hallo founders a month after graduation, Fernando Moreno Cortina, Director of Startup Success for Newchip Accelerator wrote,
“There were a few founders that were based in Puerto Rico, but they didn’t graduate…”, Fernando Moreno-Cortina, Director of Startup Success for Newchip Accelerator, said. “That’s why we took our time.”
Launched in December of 2020, Hallo democratizes and expands access to opportunities and benefits of the gig economy. Built to empower more communities in joining the new post-pandemic era of mainstream on-demand experiences and on-demand work.
The platform is “the first of its kind to build proprietary algorithms that utilize each market’s supply and demand trends for a more dynamic and responsive product mix,” it explains.
Since their continued earning pre-launch initiative at the start of the 2020 pandemic lockdown, the company has achieved continued growth and media recognition, both locally and internationally.
In its first two-quarters of operation on a bootstrapped budget, Hallo achieved a +220% platform revenue growth rate. By the end of October 2021, the company led by husband-and-husband duo Alan Burke and Jan Reese-Rondina had grown into a team of nine full-time employees, released three version builds for their apps, and launched a concurrent Reg. D and Reg. CF Investment Seed Round.
“The resources and knowledge I gained between April 2021 and October 2021 have certainly been a vital part of how we have been able to reach the stage we are in today,” said Reese-Rondina.
“Going through the Newchip Accelerator program certainly enabled us to navigate through various startup pitfalls this year. We are beyond grateful for the opportunity and are looking forward to implementing some strategies to get us into that rocketship level growth in the next three years,” he said.
Hallo has completed two accelerator programs in less than a year, the Newchip Pre-seed program, and Parallel18 Pre-18 Program. Recently, the company disclosed its first large investor deal of $1.2 million at a $10 million post-money company valuation.
To date, $200,000 has been disbursed to fund rapid-growth strategies. On Jan. 25-27, 2022, Hallo will be among the Top 100 semi-finalists competing for the title of “Startup of The Year” in the upcoming Startup of the Year Summit in Tampa, Florida.
