Digitization of churches is a bet of startup inChurch

In the beginning it was the meeting of a group of young people from the church Sara Nossa Terra, where Sydney de Menezes and Pedro Franco were, now 41 and 37 years old, respectively. There began the friendship between the two entrepreneurs who now run one of the largest startups in the Christian segment in the country: inChurch, which offers solutions for evangelical churches that want to go digital.

There are 30,000 churches served by the company in 23 countries. In 2020, the year of the pandemic that generated a shower of liquidity in the technology sector, the company had an 115% growth in the number of customers. In the first half of 2021, the increase was 40%.

Entrepreneurs say that there are cases of churches that went from 1,000 members to 3,000 after signing a partnership with the company during the pandemic. “Some are no longer local, despite being geographically located, and have started to expand their work”, says Pedro.

By the end of this year, the expectation is to reach 2 million users.

The startup was not born to work with churches, but it was in them that entrepreneurs saw a market opportunity. “How many times are we not there, inside the church, with a guy on our side asking God for a job, and even though we are from the community, we don’t find out”, Sydney asked Pedro in mid-2013.

This conversation gave rise to InRadar, a neighborhood guide for smartphone times. Its asset was the filtering tool by social group, mostly related to religion. Users could look for diverse services and give preference to evangelical, Catholic or Jewish entrepreneurs, in addition to sustainable or luxury businesses.

Since 2017, however, InRadar’s CNPJ serves by InChurch. “It was a time when a very big cultural change happened: the insertion of the smartphone in the great mass”, affirms Pedro.

That was the spark for Sydney, which from an early age was trying to modernize this institution. At the age of 17, he started the parties with a DJ at the Igreja de Cristo in Palmas, in Tocantins. “The pastors have gone crazy,” says he, who is a grandson and nephew of pastors and a bishop’s brother.

Peter’s path of faith is different. Son of Wilton Franco, creator of the global comedy “Os Trapalhões”, and actress Ana Paula Mendes, Pedro became an evangelical in his teens, through his sister, who one day invited his family to attend a worship service for the first time —in beginning, out of curiosity. “I liked to drink, I liked to go out at night, and I started to lose my will, I started going to church. Everything changed”, he says. Today, his life is structured in the church, where he met his wife.

“I’ve never heard anyone say: ‘I left church because God doesn’t love me.’ The guy leaves the church because the pastor didn’t give him a hug, because he got sick and didn’t receive a call, because there was a lack of care. an opportunity,” says Pedro.

At the beginning, the answer to this problem was digitization. “We saw the application as a tool that could solve these pains”, he says. “We ended up pivoting from what we had been doing.”

Today the company offers a myriad of services. At the heart, according to them, is the approximation of the faithful to the church — and, to top it off, the engagement of religious in the institution served.

To have the church they attend on their cell phone, the faithful must access the virtual app store and download the one corresponding to their institution, developed by inChurch together with the website. Inside, the user chooses the unit and starts receiving notifications, reading suggestions, podcasts, videos and online services. She still finds out about events, which she can sign up for on the platform. It is, in short, a kind of church news channel.

“The church becomes hybrid. It is not just physical or online, just like any other organization”, summarizes Pedro.

Tithing is also hybrid: transfers can be made via the app and an inChurch machine. From paid courses to donations for missions in other countries, the church is able to receive through this channel.

“The guy who sells candy on the street is accepting Pix. Then I get to the church and I can’t have anything?”, asks Pedro, referring to the criticisms about the tool. The resources are already directed towards a goal —such as a mission in Angola or a charity action—, which would increase transparency, according to him. The rendering of accounts to the faithful, at the end of the month or year, is a choice of the church.

Despite placing themselves as a startup like any other, with global ambitions and millionaire contributions, they do not say whether the company is already profiting or operating at a loss. The transacted amount is not public either. “They will criticize any kind of donation to the church,” Sydney justifies.

The last contribution, in December 2020, raised R$ 5 million. Smart Money Ventures led the round with the blessing of César Bertini, who was the investment enthusiast with his peers. “I’m an evangelical so I know a little about the market,” says he, who is Presbyterian. The Eduzz platform also invested and should help the company in the evangelical influencer market.

Bertini says that he always wanted to have the sector in his portfolio, and got to know the startup when a colleague, also an evangelical, joined the company.

inChurch’s angel investor also crossed paths with the founders thanks to community contacts. “We were at a church event and we were introduced to someone. When she saw the project, she said she had the right person for us”, Sydney recalls.

The next day, they met Pedro Moll, director of Rede D’Or. The businessman, who made the initial investment of BRL 3 million in the business in 2018, did not respond to the reporter’s request for an interview.

“In the investment market, inChurch is in what we call the passion economy”, explains César Bertini. “What drives companies that provide solutions to certain communities is the passion people have for the brand.”

Business aside, he also sees sense, as an evangelical, in investing in inChurch. “My church is using the app,” he says. If he didn’t profess that faith, however, he says he would still apply in the business. “There are over 50 investors who put the money with me and my partner, and not even 20% are evangelicals.”

In the first half of 2022, UninChurch, the startup’s religion courses arm, will gain a headquarters in Orlando, Florida (USA). The idea is to be a showcase for the world in a stage of internationalization — today they occasionally serve churches in other countries, but have no operations outside Brazil.

“Next year we have a new round of investment in inChurch, with another fund coming in, at a higher valuation. That’s what we expect. How much will this be? We couldn’t define it. We hope to be as much as possible, always”, summarizes Bertini.