After his Christian prayer app received support from Hollywood money men and Hollywood A-listers, a 22-year old British entrepreneur made multi-million-pound fortune in paper.
Ed Beccle, the chief executive of Glorify, raised £30million for the app he invented in church, giving the company a valuation of £188million.
It means Mr Beccle and his business partner Henry Costa – who together have a majority stake in the company – could be worth a combined £75million.
British entrepreneur Ed Beccle, 22 years old (pictured right) and partner Henry Costa have made multimillion-pound paper fortunes after Glorify, his Christian prayer program was supported by Hollywood stars. It is thought the pair could now be worth a combined £75million
A funding round for the app, led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, also received investments from reality star Kris Jenner, singer-songwriter Michael Bublé and US singer-songwriter Jason Derulo.
Michael Ovitz (Hollywood talent agent, briefly president Walt Disney) is an additional investor.
According to Mr Beccle, there may be more funding rounds with celebrity participants such as James Corden.
Glorify allows users to worship God via their smartphones, offering ‘a curated worship routine’ with ‘bite-size Bible passages’.
Glorify allows users to worship God via their smartphones, offering ‘a curated worship routine’ with ‘bite-size Bible passages’
It has been downloaded more than 2.5 million times. 250,000 users, mostly from Brazil and the US, use it daily.
This is an impressive rise for Mr Beccle, who founded the app last February. He is the son of an investor banker and an advertisement executive.
He was raised in Hong Kong and moved to the UK when he was nine but did not go to university after he baled out of St Edward’s public school in Oxford at 17.
The young entrepreneur said: ‘My life is surreal right now. I am young man with no fixed costs and I can afford all the Ubers and Uber Eats in the world.’
Bublé said in his endorsement: ‘Whether you are in the studio, on the road or even with family, it is incredibly challenging to carve out quiet time.
‘With Glorify, we now have the tools to find moments throughout the day to connect with God on our own terms.’
Mr Beccle said the business has been loss-making so far and is ‘definitely not’ even close to breaking even yet, but he believes investors have spotted a huge potential for growth. He added: ‘It’s going to be far bigger than people realise.’