Hoplr - pronounce «hopler» - is a Belgian initiative that was founded in 2014 by Jennick Scheerlinck and Jonas Heirwegh based on a common vision and conviction. In contrast to the increasing individualization and globalization, Hoplr focuses on local community building. In this way we connect people with each other and with their environment.
Hoplr shifts the focus from the individual to the local community to activate the silent majority and support within the neighbourhood. We want to use the power of the collective to anticipate the societal challenges of tomorrow such as aging, neighbourhood care, inclusion and citizen participation. Only in this way can we evolve towards more caring and sustainable society.
Hoplr offers neighbours a free and closed social network (hoplr.com, iOS, Android) and focuses on social interaction between residents and their engagement within the neighbourhood. Hoplr neighbourhoods are geopgraphically demarcated. Access is based on address and only members have access to the neighbourhood messages.
From connecting online to meeting offline.
Hoplr does more than connecting neighbours. Through offline meetings and involvement we increase the social cohesion. Community building is essential to achieve meaningful inclusion and citizen participation, and to tackle problems in one's own environment.
We build local communities. That is our core mission. We are convinced that only local communities can cope with the societal challenges that await us. Via Hoplr you get easy access to the social capital in your neighbourhood such as material, knowledge, time, volunteers and infrastructure.
Hoplr provides licenses to parties active in the public sector. These organizations can use a paying service dashboard to facilitate social work, neighborhood-oriented communication and citizen participation. In this way citizens are informed of relevant events, services or projects. External parties do not have access to neighbourhood messages between citizens. In addition, Hoplr only allows external parties that bring non-commercial value to citizens.
Hoplr has a clear ambition to become the largest neighbourhood network in Europe. Today internet giants from San Francisco (Facebook, Google, Twitter, ...) know more of the European citizen than Europe itself. Not only do we want to protect the privacy of European citizens, but also to keep their data in Europe. Hoplr does not sell user data and is fully compliant with the European GDPR privacy legislation. Hoplr is also extra vigilant when it comes to the digital security of all its applications. As such, we work together with the Ethical Hacking Platform Intigriti.
In 2014, Jennick Scheerlinck and Jonas Heirwegh founded Hoplr BVBA as a social enterprise to connect citizens with each other and their environment. After the first capital round with QuaeroQ CVBA in 2016 - the long-term investment fund of Matexi Group - they changed Hoplr into an NV. After a second capital injection in 2018, Belfius took a minority interest as well.
We always opt for strategic partners with a long-term vision. It's important to us to be able to autonomously set out the direction of Hoplr.
We consciously chose to set up a private company. This allows us to attract talent and investors in function of our product development more easily. Hoplr is a tech company.
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