AppsForBharat, the parent company of the devotion platform Sri Mandir, raised $18 million in a funding round led by Fundamentum.
Susquehanna Asia VC and existing investors Elevation Capital, Peak XV Partners, and Mirae Asset VC also participated in this round.
The company will use the funds to expand its operations in India and internationally, onboard more temples, launch new services, and build a complete tech stack for the devotion ecosystem.
“As we grow from here, we will launch spiritual and devotional experiences as a category for us, and we will do more in terms of creating a tech platform for temples, where temples can also access this platform, connect with their devotees, and build that engagement loop with them,” founder and chief executive Prashant Sachan said.
Launched in November 2020 by IIT Bombay alumnus Prashant Sachan, Sri Mandir provides a virtual platform where devotees can perform pujas, join prayer groups, and access devotional content like spiritual texts, scriptures, and videos.
Sachan shared that five lakh devotees used the platform to complete 27 lakh transactions in the past year. The platform aims to grow this number fivefold in the next year.
The Bengaluru-based startup, AppsForBharat reported a revenue of Rs 3.53 crore and a loss of Rs 45 crore in FY23. In FY24, revenue jumped 5.2x to Rs 18.59 crore, while operational losses decreased to Rs 31 crore.
In the next 12 months, the Sri Mandir app plans to support five new regional languages and increase temple listings by 10x across India. The platform also intends to expand internationally in key markets like the US, UK, and Canada.
“There are 50 million of these people in the diaspora, and access is a larger problem for them. I think 5-10% penetration is a good number to get to, and we can get there,” Sachan said.
Commenting on the investment, Ashish Kumar, cofounder and general partner of Fundamentum, who is joining the board of AppsForBharat, said, “India’s devotional sector valued at $50 billion presents a massive opportunity for digital transformation. Prashant and team have built a world-class, uniquely Indian product that seamlessly blends tradition with innovation, providing a comprehensive digital experience for its devotees. With its widespread adoption among both young adults and older generations alike, we expect long-term scalability in India and global use cases emerging in the future.”
India’s growing market for religious and spiritual apps has attracted significant investments from venture capital firms. Other notable players in this space include Vama.app, Astrotalk, DevDham, and Utsav.
A surge in online engagement post-pandemic and a rising interest in spiritual practices has fueled the growth of spiritual and devotional services apps.
The inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya also boosted the usage of devotional apps, with some industry experts comparing this trend to the rapid growth of digital payment apps like Paytm after the demonetization in 2016.
