After hosting 126 events in its first month and have 17,000-person waitlist, the community-built platform is setting a standard for offline social connection
INDONESIA, JAKARTA, INDONESIA, April 14, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Foldin, the real-world social network built to fight the global loneliness crisis, today announced the beta testing of its invite-only beta platform. In just 30 days since beta launch, Foldin has facilitated 126 community-hosted events and built a waitlist of over 17,000 users proving that there is massive demand for community platforms to encourage people to network in real life.
Unlike the existing social media platforms that optimize for screen time and algorithmic engagement, Foldin is engineered around a fundamentally different premise: the most meaningful connections happen in person. The platform enables communities to create and join real-life events, pin and claim physical locations, and compete on social leaderboards that reward real-world exploration turning offline activity into the core product experience. The goal is to make people aware of their surroundings and reconnect with the real world.
Addressing a Global Health Crisis
The loneliness epidemic has become one of the defining public health challenges of the decade. In 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General declared loneliness a national public health crisis, estimating that social disconnection carries health risks equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes daily. The World Health Organization has since established a Commission on Social Connection, recognizing that loneliness is not a Western phenomenon, it is a global one, accelerated by hyper-digital lifestyles, remote work, and the decline of third-space gathering points.
Foldin was created as a direct response. While most social platforms extract attention, Foldin redirects it back to the neighborhoods, parks, cafes, and communities where real belonging is formed.
From 100 Events to a Global Platform: The Foldin Origin Story
Foldin was born out of a real-world experiment. From October 2025 to March 2026, Founder and CEO Lilis Huri launched Daylight Asia, a belonging community specializing in intimate, curated meetups for founders and strangers in Southeast Asia. Over five months, Daylight Asia organized over 100 events, dinners, horse riding, christmas lunch, hikes, book clubs, founder meet up, and cross-border trips, connecting more than 100 founders and more than 1000 community members.
The insight was clear: people are desperate for real-world connection, but the infrastructure to facilitate it at scale does not exist. Foldin was created to be that infrastructure only bolder, community-driven, and built for global reach.
“The loneliness epidemic is not just a statistic, it’s happening and we felt it, 1 in 6 people in the world experience it. We don’t need another feed to scroll. We need a reason to step outside, touch grass, and sit across from someone. We might learn something new, get a new friend or business partner. That’s exactly what Foldin is built to do.”
Lilis Huri, Founder & CEO, Foldin
Early Traction: Built With Community, Not Just For Community
Foldin has grown through organic community momentum. Key milestones since the invite-only beta launch:
126 community-hosted events in the first 30 days of beta,
17,000+ users on the waitlist and growing organically,
100+ founders connected through the pre-launch Daylight Asia community,
100+ curated events hosted during the Daylight Asia experiment (Oct 2025 – Mar 2026),
300+ physical locations pinned and claimed by early contributors.
Launching from Southeast Asia with a global-first architecture, Foldin is designed to scale across cities, cultures, and communities, becoming the default platform for anyone who believes the best things in life happen when you step outside.
About Foldin
Foldin is the real-world social network built to solve the global loneliness epidemic. The platform empowers communities to create real-life events, pin and claim physical locations, and compete on social leaderboards that reward offline exploration. Foldin is designed for global scale, with a mission to become the default infrastructure for offline social connection. Foldin is currently in invite-only beta with 17,000+ users on its waitlist.
Lilis Huri
Foldin
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