Startups bet on India’s devotion economy

ON A QUIET sunny morning in Bengaluru, Saksham (name changed), 29, clicks on ‘Join Puja’ on his phone. Within seconds, the screen lights up with a live stream from Varanasi, with sounds of aarti on the banks of the Ganga and a priest chanting mantras. The atmosphere is spiritual — and digital. For Saksham this is a daily occurrence as he is subscribed to the Rudrabhishek ritual on spiritual super app AppsForBharat. Meanwhile in Delhi, Purnima is busy struggling with a Power Point presentation, while mollifying her mother — who is on a video call from Kolkata. Tasked with arranging a Lakshmi puja back home, she is having a trying time convincing her mum about the authenticity of the mango leaves, arranged from some 1,400 km away! Purnima has outsourced the entire endeavour with the help of apps such as AppsForBharat, VAMA and Nirmalaya. India’s ‘devotion’ market — traditionally rooted in temples, priests, and donations — is undergoing a digital transformation. A bunch of tech startups are offering rituals, prayers, astrology, and temple services as ‘products’, along with religious e-commerce. These platforms are tapping into rising urbanisation, busy lifestyles, and diaspora demand by offering convenient, authentic access to rituals via apps, aided by high smartphone adoption. The devotion economy The domestic faith economy, valued at $58.6 billion in 2023, is projected to record a CAGR of 10% till 2032, says a report by Kotak Securities. Around 80% of Indians engage in spiritual activities daily, well above the global average of 63%. “Over 200 million Indians pray multiple times a day; thousands of temples have over a thousand footfalls per day; over a dozen have over 100,000 footfalls a day. This opens up extraordinary opportunities for building a compelling value proposition for users who otherwise don’t have access to these temples,” says Rajan Anandan, MD, Peak XV Partners and Surge. No wonder that there are 900-plus spiritual startups in the country. Peak XV (then known as Sequoia Capital India) is one of the early investors in AppsForBharat. Founded by IIT Bombay alumnus Prashant Sachan, the startup is building a full-stack spiritual platform — from personalised daily content to astrology and e-pujas — backed by marquee investors like Peak XV and Elevation Capital. Its flagship app, Sri Mandir, boasts of millions of monthly active users (MAUs). “Religion in India is hyper-local, daily, and emotional. Yet it’s digitally under-served,” says Sachan. “We bring temples to people by enabling devotional services at culturally significant but lesser-known temples… The local pandit will get the puja done, and... [it] will be recorded. The user will get a copy of the recording and a prasad box from the temple.” People have always consumed devotional content. “As users go digital, their need for devotional content had to be solved digitally… But there was no platform serving that product. AppsForBharat filled the gap,” says Mayank Khanduja, partner, Elevation Capital. Sri Mandir has more than 40 million instals and 3.5 million MAUs. In the past year, 1.2 million users booked more than 5.2 million pujas and chadavas (religious offerings) on the platform. Meanwhile, VAMA (Virtual Astrology Mandir App) is bringing Tier II and III audiences online with virtual temple visits, pandit bookings, and even astrology live streams. Founded in 2020, it has partnered with more than 250 temples and has more than 300 astrologers on its platform to date. Co-founder Manu Jain says his last job with Aircel made him realise the market potential for astrology and devotion. “I always say India buys A, B, C, D — astrology, Bollywood, cricket, and devotion. I’d seen the astrology business getting organised behind telcos… At Aircel, whenever our revenue target was not met, we would send a text message for astrology. That’s how we achieved our target.” VAMA, with 600,000 MAUs, is creating online experiences to connect devotees with spiritual leaders through its focus on content. Nirmalaya, meanwhile, is redefining the way India experiences spirituality by transforming sacred temple waste into high-quality incense and wellness products. It currently collects flowers from nearly 300 temples across India and repurposes them into incense sticks under its premium brand. “We have a 30,000-sq. ft manufacturing unit in Mandoli [in Delhi]. Our women-led workforce sorts the flowers from threads, plastic, etc. The flowers are then shredded… and left to dry under the sun, after which they are converted into powder. We use the powder with our pre-mixed recipe to manufacture different products,” says co-founder Bharat Bansal. The company’s incense sticks are priced at ₹150 for 40 sticks vis-à-vis the market average of ₹40. It is currently setting up a plant in Vrindavan, while preparing to launch an ultra-premium range and sub-brands focussed on specific home fragrances. Kanpur-based Phool also operates in the same space. From its conception in the backdrop of the Ganga, to roping in investors, Phool focusses on the ₹13,000-14,000 crore domestic fragrance industry. “We collect flower waste from five key temple towns — Varanasi, Ayodhya, Bodh Gaya, Badrinath, and Kanpur. We upcycle them in our factory, before converting them into incense sticks and cones,” says Apurv Misal, head, marketing and sales, Phool. Much like Phool, Bhagvad Gita For All (BGFA) is also reimagining tradition through innovation. “We translate directly from critical Sanskrit editions and render them in contemporary language without dilution, presenting each verse with chapter/verse citations, context, and plain-language application,” says CEO Prithviraaj Shetty. The platform combines an illustrated book with QR codes linked to an immersive app containing videos and lessons on the Gita. When ritual meets RoI The business model for these platforms typically involves a commission-based system for enabling live-streaming, e-prasad, and puja booking; e-commerce and subscriptions for ritual kits and devotional merchandise; subscription models for premium content (like personalised horoscopes or exclusive devotional music); and potentially advertising revenue, according to market research firm, the IMARC Group. “A modest temple in Pauri, Uttarakhand, once struggled with low footfall and limited engagement from devotees. However, after being onboarded with the Sri Mandir app, over 50,000 devotees have booked services through the app over last year, bringing the temple closer to its community,” says Sachan. AppsForBharat charges a platform fee, depending on the temple’s involvement. “Some temples only provide a pandit, while we handle everything else like ritual items, video, logistics etc. Others manage it all themselves. It’s a flexible model, similar to early-stage food delivery before standardisation,” says Sachan. The company’s annual revenue rose to ₹100 crore in FY25. “Sri Mandir is currently in its growth stage. We expect to achieve profitability within the next two years,” Sachan adds. Jain says though VAMA had some level of product-market fit initially, pricing was a challenge. “At the time, services were priced upwards of ₹5,000, ₹10,000, even up to ₹50,000, which was not affordable for most people.” It was while spending time at temples that Jain stumbled upon the right approach — offering online pujas at more accessible prices, such as conducting two pujas at the same time, he explains. The company recently raised ₹22 crore in a funding round led by existing investor Wavemaker Partners, valuing it at ₹147 crore. It has raised ₹45 crore to date. The balance sheet is also showing signs of improvement, with revenue doubling to ₹20 crore in FY25, from ₹9 crore in the previous fiscal. Nirmalaya, meanwhile, processes 300 orders daily through its own website, and 400-500 orders on Amazon, catering not just to Indian customers, but also exporting to markets in the U.S., the U.K., the U.A.E., South America, and Miami. With tie-ups in place with the Mathura-Vrindavan temple board, and similar collaborations in Maharashtra, the brand is working on recycling floral waste for temples and selling its products within temple premises. Phool upcycles 30 tonnes of floral waste discarded by temples every day, and uses it to manufacture charcoal-free, organic incense sticks. A clutch of marquee investors, including IAN Fund, Social Alpha, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, and IIT Kanpur have put in $12.7 million in the company to date, valuing it at ₹175 crore, according to Tracxn. The firm closed FY25 with an over 65% YoY jump in revenues. Tradition meets tech These platforms are often vernacular-first, designed for mobile-only users in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and other regional languages, with push notifications often timed with regional festivals. Hence, it’s no surprise that around one-third of Sri Mandir’s users are from Tier II and III towns. For VAMA, the Tier I and II split is 30:70; for Nirmalaya, the Tier II and III towns constitute 65% of its user base. “Smaller towns are developing, and income levels are rising. Internet connectivity and digital payments have done wonders. You can have a puja done at a temple you would visit once a year — since it’s far away — for ₹800, which is the same as the cost of getting to the airport in a smaller town,” says Anandan. “The devotion economy is probably one of the largest markets with an estimated spend of $40 billion annually in India, and has a very, very strong mass appeal,” adds Khanduja of Elevation Capital. Digital payments have further aided the rise. “Today, one can pay for a ₹10 tea on the street in a small town with UPI. That’s the kind of access UPI has created in rural India… There needs to be value propositions that resonate with user groups. If that happens, consumers are willing to pay,” says Anandan. The safety net “[Companies in this space] need to have the right trust and safety rules, the right guardrails. AppsForBharat, for instance, doesn’t have user-generated content, since it’s hard to moderate. It has professionally generated content,” says Anandan. “Also, since this is a complex space, one needs to have extraordinary discipline on what companies can do and what they can’t.” “If I buy a biscuit, and find it tasty, I will go and buy it again. But here you have to be authentic, make people believe. That’s where these apps help. You see the temple, you see the priest, talk to him. The trust factor is more,” adds Jain. This trust-building is crucial, especially in a space rooted in faith. “It’s a game of trust, not just for users, but also for the temples. You have to build that trust. That takes time. So on-ground tie-ups and quality of execution become very important,” points out Khanduja. But then, trust only works when the product delivers. “We focus on experiences along with products. There’s an entire experience that we pack in one box of agarbatti. There’s a stand with each box. All the information that you need with respect to the product is there,” says Misal of Phool. The outlook, meanwhile, is tremendous. “Considering around $40 billion is spent on divinity, and the sector is growing in double-digits, this space is likely to touch $100 billion in five to seven years,” says Anandan. What about the number of companies operating in the space? “Any large space, by definition, will have quite a few companies. There will be a pioneering company in the devotional platform space. Once that company gets traction, others will show up. Over time, there will be one or two leading companies and a few others. It’s not a winner-takes-all type of market. It does have marketplace-like characteristics because there is temple supply,” he says. Misal believes exclusivity will turn out to be the biggest differentiator. “The market is moving towards premiumisation. That’s one key trend,” he says. “There has never been a better time to start up in India,” says Anandan. Players in the space will agree wholeheartedly.

Startups bet on India’s devotion economy

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