What Holepunch does

Holepunch is a peer-to-peer platform company building developer tools and applications for serverless, decentralized software. Its product portfolio centers on three components: Hypercore, a collection of small JavaScript modules that provide P2P data structures and communication primitives; Pear by Holepunch, a combined P2P runtime, development, and deployment tool that lets developers build, distribute, and scale applications directly from a laptop without managing server infrastructure; and Keet, the company's flagship consumer P2P messaging application supporting encrypted text, voice, video calls, and file transfers. The underlying Hypercore protocol uses self-verifying data structures and holepunching (NAT traversal) technology to enable direct device-to-device communication behind firewalls, while apps distributed through Pear are re-hosted by the peers who download them, creating a self-reinforcing distribution network with no central server dependencies. Holepunch serves two primary segments: P2P application developers building decentralized apps (VPNs, communication tools, file-sharing platforms) and privacy-conscious end users—particularly in censorship-heavy regions—seeking surveillance-resistant communication tools. Keet authenticates via a 24-word seed phrase rather than phone numbers, reinforcing the privacy and sovereignty positioning.

Holepunch is incorporated in El Salvador as Holepunch, S.A. de C.V., with a registered office in San Salvador. The company was co-founded by Paolo Ardoino (CEO of Tether) and Mathias Buus, creating a deep strategic alignment with Tether that extends beyond a conventional customer relationship: Tether co-developed Keet and is integrating its QVAC AI applications onto the Pear Runtime. This alignment positions Holepunch within Tether's broader vision of financial, communication, and technological sovereignty, though Holepunch operates as a distinct legal entity with no disclosed parent-company ownership.

The company's business model and revenue mechanics are not disclosed in available sources. There is no public pricing for the Pear platform or development tools, no funding rounds are recorded, and no revenue or ARR figures have been shared. Distribution and adoption appear to be driven by a product-led and community-led model, with Keet serving as both an end-user product and a demonstration of the Pear Runtime's capabilities to developers. Active hiring via Recruitee indicates continued investment in platform and ecosystem growth.

Name

Holepunch

Legal name

Holepunch, S.A. de C.V.

Website

https://holepunch.to

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Holepunch provides a peer-to-peer platform (Hypercore modules and Pear Runtime) that enables developers to build serverless applications, and operates Keet, a P2P encrypted messaging app with over one million downloads. It targets P2P developers and privacy-conscious users, particularly in censorship-heavy regions.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Peer-to-peer application infrastructure

NAICS

Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (5415)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Programming Services (7371)

akta.pro primary industry

Deployment, Automation & DevOps (build pipelines, contract deployment tools) (FSAPABAH)

akta.pro secondary industries

Testing, Simulation & Local Dev Environments (testnets, forks, fuzzing, CI) (FSAPABAG), Cross-Chain Developer Tooling (messaging SDKs, relayers, interoperability APIs) (FSAPABAF)

Keywords

• Peer-to-peer platform
• Decentralized applications
• Serverless development
• Encrypted messaging
• P2P infrastructure

Headquarters

HQ city

San Salvador

HQ country

El Salvador

HQ region

Latin America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Platform and Development Tools: Revenue model not explicitly disclosed in available sources. The company provides development tools (Pear Runtime) and P2P infrastructure modules. Future plans include adding Bitcoin transfers to Keet and on-device AI translation features, suggesting potential monetization through integrated services.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Holepunch provides a serverless peer-to-peer application platform composed of Hypercore (small JavaScript modules for self-verifying P2P data structures), Pear Runtime (a combined P2P runtime, development, and deployment tool for Desktop, Terminal, and Mobile), and Keet (an end-to-end encrypted messaging, voice, video, and file transfer application built on Pear). Together they enable developers and users to build, distribute, and run zero-infrastructure apps where peers re-host content for other peers.

Product overview

Holepunch is a peer-to-peer platform company that provides building blocks for creating applications without servers. The core product portfolio includes: (1) Hypercore - JavaScript modules for P2P data structures and communication; (2) Pear by Holepunch - a combined P2P Runtime, Development & Deployment tool for building applications; and (3) Keet - a flagship P2P encrypted messaging application built on the Pear runtime. These products work together to enable developers to build zero-infrastructure applications that operate peer-to-peer, with no central servers required.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Keet: A peer-to-peer encrypted messaging application enabling private text, voice, video calls, and file transfers without central servers.
• Pear
• Hypercore

Products and services

• Pear by Holepunch Combined Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Runtime, Development & Deployment tool that enables developers to build, share, and extend P2P applications using common Web and Mobile technology for Desktop, Terminal, and Mobile targets, with zero-infrastructure deployment from a developer laptop.
• Keet Peer-to-peer encrypted messaging application enabling direct device-to-device communication without servers or phone-number logins; supports private text, voice, video calls, and file transfers, with over one million downloads across mobile and desktop since launch.
• Hypercore Collection of small JavaScript modules that provide self-verifying data structures for peer-to-peer file management and communication, serving as the building blocks for Holepunch applications such as Keet and Pear-based tools.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 1 million app downloads for Keet since July 2022 launch
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• TethercoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 25 July 2022Tether collaborated with Holepunch to develop Keet, a distributed peer-to-peer social messaging application. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino is also a co-founder of Holepunch, creating a deep strategic alignment. Tether is integrating its QVAC AI applications onto the same Pear Runtime platform, expanding the partnership to additional product lines. The collaboration is positioned as part of Tether's broader vision toward financial, communication, and technological sovereignty.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Status: Status is a Web3 messaging app that combines a private messenger, Ethereum wallet, and decentralized browsing. It is directly comparable to Keet as a privacy/P2P communication tool targeting the Web3 community, and overlaps with Holepunch's broader ecosystem given the Tether/QVAC alignment.
• Briar: Briar is a peer-to-peer messaging app that operates over Tor, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth and is designed for activists and journalists in restrictive environments. It is directly comparable to Keet on the censorship-resistance and P2P value proposition, targeting a nearly identical user segment.
• Element (Matrix): Element, built on the open Matrix protocol, is a federated/decentralized messaging platform targeting enterprise and privacy-conscious users. It is directly comparable to Keet because both pursue decentralized communication architectures, though Matrix uses federation rather than pure P2P holepunching.
• Session: Session is an end-to-end encrypted messenger that routes messages through a decentralized onion routing network, requiring no phone number. It is directly comparable to Keet on privacy, anonymous onboarding, and censorship resistance, and targets a similar user base of activists and journalists.
• Berty: Berty is an open-source peer-to-peer messaging app built on the Wesh protocol using Bluetooth and mDNS for offline communication. It directly competes with Keet as a privacy-focused, serverless, censorship-resistant messaging alternative, with a similar target audience in restrictive regimes.

Broad incumbents

• Signal: Signal is a widely adopted end-to-end encrypted messaging app and the de facto reference for private communication. It competes directly with Keet on user privacy and encrypted messaging, but operates a centralized (rather than serverless) architecture with a well-resourced nonprofit behind it.
• Telegram: Telegram is a global messaging platform with optional end-to-end encrypted secret chats and a large developer ecosystem through its Bot API. It is a direct competitor to Keet in messaging, though its architecture is centralized and cloud-based, contrasting with Holepunch's P2P model.

Emerging players

• Skiff: Skiff (acquired by Notion) was a privacy-focused end-to-end encrypted productivity suite including messaging, mail, and documents. It is comparable to Holepunch's broader platform ambitions of building privacy-first tools without centralized infrastructure, though its distribution and sync model differed.
• IPFS / Protocol Labs: IPFS provides a peer-to-peer hypermedia protocol for content-addressed storage and is foundational infrastructure for decentralized web applications. It overlaps with Holepunch's Hypercore in the P2P data structures and file management space, though it focuses on storage/distribution rather than messaging.
• Gun.js: Gun is a decentralized graph database and protocol enabling real-time peer-to-peer synchronization. It is comparable to Hypercore as a developer toolkit for building decentralized applications, with similar use cases in offline-first and serverless architecture.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/holepunch_to
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/holepunchto

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Holepunch