Can AppsForBharat Build The Uber Or Airbnb For India's Spiritual Tech Market?

The way to spirituality takes a detour down the tech route in today’s India and a $151.9 Bn market waits to unfold in the next 10 years with an exponential rise in traffic.

Believe it or not, millennials and Gen Z are spearheading this growth in spiritual tech around the world. If 62% of millennials and Gen Z in the US identify as “spiritual but not religious”, then 51% Indian youths seek astrological insights daily, and 88% read horoscopes weekly.

“It’s not faith alone,” asserted Prashant Sachan, who founded AppsForBharat. The spiritual tech startup is in the league of AstroTalk, Vama, Melooha, Japam, Utsav, Devdham and many more, offering services like astrology consultations, live puja bookings and virtual temple experiences. “We’re in the business of experience, happiness, peace and contentment.”

AppsForBharat was an early explorer in an uncharted territory when the world was swathed by a seemingly endless uncertainty in the COVID days of 2020. “We help people feel a sense of fulfilment every time they use our services. We help them understand what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, and what it means. And we make sure the experience is seamless,” Sachan said.

The fulfilment is aided by the three significant drivers – affordability, access and aspiration. Convenience is a fourth. “You don’t have to worry about finding a pandit (the priest) or arranging the samagri (the items for performing a puja). We take care of everything.”

As emotional wellness, micro-healing and a renewed sense of community shape how people seek comfort and clarity, India’s spiritual tech has entered a growth phase like never before, setting the $58.6 Bn market on a 10% annual growth track.

Sachan’s AppsForBharat runs Sri Mandir, a dedicated app where the user can perform a puja from the mobile. It also plays bhajans, features Hindu almanac Panchang, and lets users attend daily darshans. They also book personalised pujas, offer chadhava (offerings) to temples and also provide fully assisted darshan yatra tours at a fee.

As of now, the Sri Mandir app is available in over 30 countries, hosts 3.5 Mn monthly active users, serves more than 100 temples and has conducted over 3 Mn pujas and chadhavas for its users. Sachan claimed that the platform has nearly 1.2 Lakh paid users, and the rate of conversion to paid users has grown from 0.5% in 2020 to 3.3% now. According to him, the new users are converting to paid users at a much higher rate of 6-7%.

In its recent Series C funding round led by Susquehanna Asia VC, AppsForBharat raised INR 175 Cr to expand its operations across more than 20 temple towns such as Ayodhya, Varanasi, Ujjain, and Haridwar.

The growing popularity has translated into a 426% surge in revenue for the startup in FY24 to INR 18.59 Cr. The founder claimed that AppsForBharat closed FY25 with INR 82.2 Cr in revenue, marking a 341% on-year jump. Its EBITDA loss is pegged at INR 35.5 Cr in FY25. AppsForBharat had posted INR 31 Cr losses in FY24. The company is yet to share the financials for FY25.

As digital devotion sweeps through the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world, Sri Mandir finds itself in a race with the likes of UtsavApp, VAMA, Bhagva and DevDham, which offer similar services to their customers.

Airbnb Or Uber For Spiritual Tech Space?

Rituals that were deeply rooted to physical involvement could never be imagined to have a virtual avatar until 2020, when the pandemic struck, and everything changed.

As an early mover in the space, AppsForBharat not only had to build a product, but also had to build the market by investing in both user awareness for creating the demand and the digital infrastructure required at partner temples to enable services like e-darshan, e-puja and digital chadhawa.

“We had to deploy basic tech infrastructure at our partner temples ourselves, often for free, just to get the services off the ground – much like what Airbnb or Uber had to do early on in the US by investing in the ecosystem to create the market,” Sachan said.

AppsForBharat had started with a focussed product of offering puja, the act of conducting rituals in one’s name at temples without having to be physically present. The goal was to solve for those who were living abroad or could not visit temples for whatever reason.

But as the product gained traction, more temples came on board, bringing in a new set of requirements as well as opportunities.

When many temples wondered if the startup could deliver the prasad to the devotees, Sachan smelt an opportunity. AppsForBharat partnered with logistics providers in temple towns across India, allowing the temples to fulfil online orders for offerings just like they would for in-person visits. The latest round of funding will help the startup firm up its logistics capabilities.

Then came donations. The temples sought assistance in collecting donations from online devotees. This was a game-changer for AppsForBharat, which had so far focussed almost entirely on the end-user experience. The company began investing in the temple side of the equation and brought in tools for collecting donations, building audiences ahead of festivals and so on.

Digital rituals weren’t enough. The temples now wanted an entire ecosystem, where they could target their devotees again and again. “They asked us if we could build a community of believers and help the temples reach them on important days,” Sachan shared. “Since we already had people on our platform and they were coming back regularly, we could help temples re-engage their base.”

Doing The Digital Devotion Math Right

AppsForBharat claims to offer incremental income to temples, often equivalent to 25-30% of their total donation revenues, which is sizable enough for them to partner with the platform. In its flagship app Sri Mandir, revenues are evenly split between puja services and ceremonial offerings (chadhawa), with a smaller contribution coming from its early-stage pilgrimage logistics arm, Sri Yatra.

From a user’s perspective, the cost of performing a puja, whether done in person or arranged remotely, is typically in the range of INR 5,000 to INR 6,000. This cost remains largely unchanged even when someone reaches out to a local priest personally and arranges for the ritual to be done on their behalf.

Sri Mandir’s model tweaks this by introducing the pooled puja services. Instead of offering one-to-one rituals, the platform groups multiple users together for a collective ceremony, a structure permitted within traditional Vedic practice.

“If a priest charges INR 5,000 for a single ritual, Sri Mandir negotiates a slightly higher rate, say, INR 7,000, for a longer and more involved group ritual. The platform then brings in 10 to 15 devotees for that single session, collecting a total of, let’s say, INR 15,000. Out of that, INR 7,000 goes to the priest and the remaining covers material costs, arrangements, and the platform’s cut,” explained the founder.

In this setup, Sri Mandir retains around 25% of the pooled amount, while offering users a more affordable way to fulfil their religious needs and ensuring temples and priests still earn more than they would do offline.

“The category is tough, no doubt, but it needs to be approached with respect and a very honest view. That’s the only way to keep building it,” Sachan said.

Of Faith, Finances, And Future

AppsForBharat plans to focus on expanding its current offerings and scaling operations by partnering with more temples in new regions and ramping up the user segments.

“Out of 350 Lakh users today, about 1.2 Lakh are our paying users – up from just 30,000 earlier – and it’s growing organically. More and more users are trying out our services, and as we add more temples, especially regional temples, we’re unlocking new markets. It’s a supply-first business – a bit like how Swiggy works. When they onboarded California Burrito, it brought in a whole new customer base. It’s the same for us,” Sachan said.

The company is also working on Sri Yatra, its early stage travel and pilgrimage service which is aimed at the very specific problem of how to make temple visits safer and more convenient for elderly devotees.

The central idea, as Sachan puts it, is to become a modern-day Shravan Kumar for its users. For working professionals who live in cities like Gurgaon or Bengaluru and can’t always accompany their parents, Sri Yatra steps in to ensure that the elderly can still travel to spiritual destinations three to four times a year without the stress or logistical burden that usually comes with such trips.

Sri Yatra allows travellers to hire local helpers for INR 1,000-1,500 to assist with wheelchairs or provide guided support for a safer experience during temple visits. It throws open a steady income for locals, too. Sri Yatra has raked in nearly INR 25 Lakh of business in FY25 and could be another growth driver for AppsForBharat.

The company is still 2-3 years from breaking even, primarily because of the investments in building operational infrastructure, said the founder. He, however, noted that AppsForBharat turned contribution margin 2 (CM2) positive in February 2024, which means that the business started earning more from each transaction after accounting for variable costs like marketing, platform fees and fulfilment. The company is growing four-fold year-on-year.

The biggest expenditure for AppsForBharat remains marketing, followed by the cost of goods and payouts to temples, trusts and local vendors. In FY24, its marketing expense nearly doubled to INR 15.5 Cr as the company partnered with more temples and tapped into newer markets. Sachan shared that nearly 20-25% of the overall spend goes to local vendors, directly contributing to employment in temple towns.

For FY26, the company targets a revenue of over INR 200 Cr, riding on improving repeat rates and a growing share of users from outside India.

For the time being, AppsForBharat is leading the segment in a market teeming with millions of users. In a category long known for its traditional approach, AppsForBharat’s new-generation services are addressing a market that has largely been overlooked.

In the economy of faith, spirituality and, most importantly, trust, the startup sees itself as an Uber or an Airbnb in their early days in the US, but they have been the greatest of disruptors, and not just pioneers, in the markets they operate in.

AppsForBharat can be a pathfinder in tech-age India, but whether it can be a disruptor in a nation where spirituality rules the roost, and with larger players like Shaadi.com’s Anupam Mittal and Flipkart joining the fray, or not awaits a divine diktat.

With Inputs From Debarghya Sil

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