Hoccer, a WhatsApp alternative from Germany, has just received €50 million from Dirk Ströer, a well-known German media entrepreneur (Update – May 2023: The startup seems to be no longer in business under this website, and we therefore deactivated the original link). This large investment, which grants Dirk Ströer 51% equity in the startup, was the first time we had ever heard of Hoccer, however given that there was a recent big acquisition deal between Facebook and WhatsApp, and the topic of data protection and privacy for alternative messaging apps is very hot right now, Hoccer has been very much on our radar.
So what’s the story behind Hoccer? Created by a small group of developers, Hoccer’s first Android and iPhone version, ‘Hoccer classic’, was launched in 2009. In 2010 the Berlin-based team incorporated the project and founded Hoccer GmbH. Since a major update of the app in December 2011 and the release of ‘Hoccer XO’ in 2013, the young company now counts over two million downloads so far.
A nice to know is that Hoccer’s end-to-end encryption technology ensures that only you and the intended receivers can decipher the message. Even Hoccer isn’t able to read your messages. In addition, the encrypted information that you transfer to others stays on Hoccer’s servers only for the time until the recipient has received your message.
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