Latest news with #AppsForBharat
Entrepreneur
14 hours ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
AppsForBharat Raises USD 20 Mn in Series C Round to Scale Sri Mandir Devotional Platform
The newly raised capital will be deployed to strengthen and scale temple partnerships in over 20 temple towns across India, including Varanasi, Ayodhya, Ujjain, and Haridwar. You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. AppsForBharat, the parent company of leading faith-tech platform Sri Mandir, has raised INR 175 crore (approximately USD 20 million) in a Series C funding round led by Susquehanna Asia Venture Capital. Existing investors: Fundamentum (co-founded by Nandan Nilekani), Elevation Capital, and Peak XV Partners, also participated in the round. The newly raised capital will be deployed to strengthen and scale temple partnerships in over 20 temple towns across India, including Varanasi, Ayodhya, Ujjain, and Haridwar. The Bengaluru-based company also plans to expand its services and commerce verticals, set up logistics and fulfillment hubs for prasad and ritual item deliveries, and enhance user experience with AI-powered features. "With this fundraise, we are entering the next phase of growth—scaling temple partnerships, improving digital infrastructure for temples, and building AI capabilities to serve our users better," said Prashant Sachan, Founder and CEO of AppsForBharat. "We've grown 2X in the last six months and are bringing consistent, year-round income to priests and local vendors in temple towns by digitising devotional services." Founded in November 2020 by IIT Bombay alumnus and serial entrepreneur Prashant Sachan, AppsForBharat has quickly emerged as a category leader in the faith-tech space. Its flagship app, Sri Mandir, has seen over 4 crore downloads, enabling devotees to participate in online pujas, send offerings (chadhava), receive prasad, and consume devotional content—all from their homes. In the past year alone, Sri Mandir has facilitated 52 lakh online pujas and chadhavas across more than 70 temples in India. The app also claims to have a strong global footprint, with nearly 20% of its demand coming from the Indian diaspora in countries like the US, UK, UAE, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. At events like the Mahakumbh Mela 2025, Sri Mandir acted as the exclusive digital partner for Vedashram Trust, serving over 3 lakh devotees with hybrid devotional experiences and personalized pujas. It has also helped smaller temples in regions like Uttarakhand and Tirunelveli increase engagement and income, with digital puja bookings driving 25–30% additional revenue. "Sri Mandir has evolved from a service marketplace to a comprehensive spiritual platform," said Sai Araveti, Investment Advisor to Susquehanna Asia VC. "We're excited to support their mission to blend tradition with technology." With this round, AppsForBharat's total funding crosses USD 50 million, positioning it as a transformative player in India's spiritual and digital landscape.
Mint
16 hours ago
- Business
- Mint
AppsForBharat raises ₹175 crore in funding round led by Susquehanna Asia Venture
Gift this article BENGALURU :AppsForBharat, which runs online devotional app Sri Mandir, has raised ₹ 175 crore in a Series C funding round led by Susquehanna Asia Venture Capital with participation from existing investors Nandan Nilekani's Fundamentum, Elevation Capital, and Peak XV Partners. AppsForBharat, which runs online devotional app Sri Mandir, has raised ₹ 175 crore in a Series C funding round led by Susquehanna Asia Venture Capital with participation from existing investors Nandan Nilekani's Fundamentum, Elevation Capital, and Peak XV Partners. The primary funding round values the Bengaluru-based startup at $175 million, almost doubling since September 2024, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The firm had bagged $18 million from Fundamentum and other investors in September. AppsForBharat declined to comment on the valuation. The company crossed a revenue rate of ₹ 100 crore in FY25 and facilitated 5.2 million online pujas and offerings at more than 70 temples across India, its founder and chief executive Prashant Sachan told Mint. Expansion into temple towns The firm will invest a part of the funds in over 20 temple towns in India, strengthen services and commerce verticals, establish fulfillment and logistics hubs, and build AI-led features to bolster user engagement, it said in a statement on Monday. The firm will also ramp up local hiring to run and manage operations of these hubs and fuel employment generation in temple towns. On the devotee side, Sri Mandir is developing AI tools that will help users navigate the app, answer queries, hand-hold users through pujas, rituals and festivals, and recommend personalized spiritual content. Faith-tech momentum Faith-tech startups are gaining momentum in India, with funding into these digital platforms surging from a total $4.3 million in 2023 to $50.7 million in 2024, according to market intelligence platform Tracxn. 'We have grown by 2X in the last 6 months and have been able to create significant value to our temple partners and our devotees. We've not only brought ease, convenience and satisfaction to our devotees but more importantly enabled consistent, year-round revenue for priests, local vendors, and service providers in temple towns. These communities have traditionally depended on seasonal footfall. By digitising their services, we're helping uplift livelihoods and bring stability to an otherwise informal and fragmented ecosystem," Sachan said. Roughly 30% of AppsForBharat's users are from the merchant community, in the age bracket of 25 to 35, Mint reported last year. Topics You May Be Interested In
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Sri Mandir keeps investors hooked as digital devotion grows
AppsForBharat, the Indian startup behind the Hindu devotional app Sri Mandir, has raised $20 million in a new round — just over nine months after securing $18 million — as the app continues to attract not only devotees but also strong investor interest. Susquehanna Asia Venture Capital led the Series C round with participation from existing investors, including Indian billionaire and tech veteran Nandan Nilekani's Fundamentum Partnership, Elevation Capital, and Peak XV Partners. Religious devotion runs deep in India, where there are 53 temples for every 100,000 people. Nearly 2 million Hindu devotees perform prayers at home with local priests or at temples to seek peace and well-being. The Hindu temple economy is worth ₹3.02 trillion (about $40 billion) or nearly 2.3% of India's GDP, per a survey by the Indian government's National Sample Survey Office. Despite this scale, services including prayers and offerings are largely offline, unorganized, and fragmented. AppsForBharat says it's solving these challenges with Sri Mandir. Founded in November 2020, AppsForBharat introduced Sri Mandir shortly after to serve Hindu devotees with online prayers and the ability to make offerings virtually to Indian temples. The app has garnered over 40 million downloads since its launch. In the past 12 months, it has enabled 1.2 million devotees to perform online prayers and make offerings at more than 70 temples across India. Currently, Sri Mandir has around 3.5 million monthly active users, including about 90,000 from outside India. While the app's user base remains primarily domestic, its average revenue per user (ARPU) abroad is significantly higher — about ₹7,000 (roughly $81), compared to ₹600–800 ($7–$9) in India. Notably, nearly 20% of the platform's revenue comes from the Indian diaspora in the U.S., U.K., UAE, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, according to the Bengaluru-based startup. Meanwhile, the number of registered Sri Mandir users outside India is growing at 15% quarter-over-quarter, reaching 700,000. Domestically, the app's Indian user base is evenly split between tier-1 and tier-2 towns, with 30% of users under the age of 35. Outside India, the majority of users are men and women aged 30 and above. At the start of 2025, Sri Mandir surpassed a $12 million run rate, AppsForBharat founder and CEO Prashant Sachan said in an interview. The app also has a six-month retention rate of roughly 55%, meaning that more than half its users remain active six months after first joining. 'The app has been retentive and primary because these transactions are something that the user will do throughout the year, multiple times a year,' Sachan told TechCrunch. User behavior patterns vary by geography. There is a 20% to 25% overlap between users in India who do both prayers and make offerings through the app. In the U.S., the app sees an even higher overlap, with roughly 50% of its entire user base engaging in both activities, as they are far away from the Indian temples. While Hindu devotion services are largely offline in India, some temples have begun live streaming and accepting online offerings. In response, some apps have emerged to take on Sri Mandir's success. However, Sachan stated that the competing apps combined would account for merely 15% to 20% of Sri Mandir's cumulative installs. Like other online platforms, Sri Mandir takes a cut from temples to bring them online. The average take rate is 20% to 25%, but it varies based on the services offered. The startup is also gradually introducing items such as merchandise from known temples to expand its revenues beyond prayer and offering cuts. Importantly, Sri Mandir also helps increase revenues for temples by 15% to 25% as they attract more devotees online. The religious app market has shown growth everywhere, but particularly in India. Globally, the top 10 religious apps experienced a 15% year-over-year increase in monthly active users during the first half of 2025, even with a 2% decline in downloads. India's religious app market has outpaced this global trend, with the top 10 apps recording 60% growth in monthly active users and 50% increase in downloads. Paradoxically, while India's religious app market boomed, Sri Mandir lost a little ground. The app ranked among the top 35 religious apps globally and held the top position among religious apps in India during the first half of 2024. This year, it dropped to second place in India, overtaken by Bible app, which claims to have more than 80 million average monthly active users globally. Sri Mandir remains the leading Hindu devotional app, however. Overall, religious tech funding in India reached its peak in 2024, attracting $50.5 million that year alone, while global funding in the space peaked earlier in 2021, followed by a gradual decline, according to Indian private market tracker Tracxn in data shared with TechCrunch. India has accounted for 15% of the total global investment in religious tech since 2020, making it the second-largest market after the U.S. in terms of funding volume. AppsForBharat has emerged as the leading startup in this space, having raised $33.4 million before its Series C round, per Tracxn. 'Religious tech startups are increasingly gaining prominence globally, especially in economies like India, owing to the importance of culture and religion among the demographic, combined with the rise in internet penetration, digital payments, and growing adoption of e-commerce, especially in tier-2–3 cities. We can expect this sector to grow further in the near future,' a Tracxn spokesperson said. With the fresh funding, AppsForBharat plans to invest in over 20 temple towns in India, starting with Varanasi and Ayodhya in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, Haridwar in Uttarakhand, and Ujjain in central India's Madhya Pradesh. The startup will open physical facilities in these towns to create logistics and fulfillment hubs across its temple network, managing the delivery of food offerings (prasad) and other ritual items. Each of these physical facilities will handle 40,000 to 50,000 orders and contribute to local employment, Sachan said. Additionally, the startup is enhancing the user experience on its app with AI-led features, including the ability to ask questions about faith, specific prayers, and festivals, which users would typically ask a priest or their elders. The startup will work with subject-matter experts and deploy safeguards to prevent instances of hallucination, where AI makes up information on its own, Sachan said. AppsForBharat aims to achieve profitability by 2027–28 and plans to be ready for a public listing during that same window, although Sachan said he has no definite IPO timeline yet. In the near term, the startup aims to grow its temple base to 500 this year and expand its headcount from 300 people currently, including 250 at its headquarters in Bengaluru, to about 400. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Time of India
18 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Tata Digital shores up board; Rapido's tasty new ride
Next Tata Digital shores up board; Rapido's tasty new ride Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox? Also in the letter: Punnet Chhatwal, Sunil D'Souza join Tata Digital board after Tahilyani 's exit Why it matters: The details: Tata Digital will operate under a board-led structure for now, with no new CEO expected soon, partly due to leadership bandwidth being tied up with Air India after its recent crash. Aarthi Subramanian stepped off the board recently after becoming COO at TCS. Ankur Verma has taken over as acting chairman of Croma, one of the group's key retail assets. The backdrop: In FY24, Tata Digital reported an aggregate GMV of Rs 37,355 crore across 140 million users, but cross-platform integration remains weak. What's next: Rapido set to pilot food delivery service, Ownly, in Bengaluru Driving the news: Learning curve: Rapido will test the waters in July with a small pilot across Koramangala, HSR, and Sarjapur. The goal is to gather on-ground insights before scaling. For the first two to three months, the focus will remain squarely on Bengaluru. By September or October, Rapido plans to expand into two or three additional cities. If all goes well, it aims to be in 10 cities by next July. Restaurants onboarded for the pilot have been asked to list 4–5 popular items priced under Rs 150. These will feature prominently on Rapido's Ownly app. Feeding disruption: In its discussions with restaurants, the company is offering what incumbents Swiggy and Zomato rarely do: access to customer data. Even if Rapido ends up charging a platform fee, it won't breach a certain ceiling, one restaurateur told us. Sponsor ETtech Top 5 & Morning Dispatch! Why it matters: The opportunity: Reach a highly engaged audience of decision-makers. Boost your brand's visibility among the tech-savvy community. Custom sponsorship options to align with your brand's goals. What's next: ETtech Done Deals: Jumbotail hits $1 billion valuation in new funding Deal details: Before this round, Jumbotail was valued at around $900–950 million. It joins Netradyne, Porter, Drools and BlueStone in the 2025 unicorn club. The company has also completed its acquisition of Solv India, a B2B commerce and financial services platform incubated by SC Ventures. AppsForBharat adds to expansion war chest Deal details: The new capital will enable the company to develop 20 temple towns across India and expand its services and commerce verticals. It also intends to establish 20 logistics hubs by the end of this year to support its expanding operations. IPO-bound Infra Market raises $50 million in debt Tell me more: India rising as Big Tech breaks bank for AI talent Numberwise: Indian AI professionals cost around 15–25% less than those in the US, according to AMS data. Teamlease Digital estimates that AI salaries in the West (US and Europe) are up to five times higher than India's average. Top US researchers earn between $500,000 and over $1 million annually. In India, it is closer to Rs 60-80 lakh, according to recruitment firm Adecco. Challenges: Other Top Stories By Our Reporters Ola Electric lags legacy players in EV two-wheeler race: Cognizant asks Infosys to name employees in trade secrets case: Ex-Cognizant CEO's Recognize raises second fund: Global Picks We Are Reading Happy Tuesday! The Tata Group has appointed two consumer-focused group CEOs to Tata Digital's board. This and more at today's Morning Dispatch.■ ETtech Done Deals■ India in AI talent hunt■ Ola lags in e2W raceTata Sons has added Indian Hotels CEO Puneet Chhatwal and Tata Consumer CEO Sunil D'Souza to the board of Tata Digital , according to people familiar with the development. The move follows the exit of MD & CEO Naveen Tahilyani in May, barely a year into his tenure, as first reported by appointments respond to long-standing concerns that Tata Digital's board leaned too heavily on finance experts and lacked strong consumer business insight. Chhatwal and D'Souza bring deep experience in scaling retail-focused brands and navigating complex group Digital runs BigBasket, 1mg, Tata Cliq, and Croma. Its super app, Tata Neu, has seen limited traction, contributing less than 10% of gross sales at BigBasket and regain ground, Tata Digital has soft-launched 'Flash,' a 10-minute delivery service within Tata Neu, entering a space dominated by Blinkit, Instamart, and now, entering the ring from the east side of Bengaluru, clad in blue and yellow, comes the latest challenger in the food delivery game: we first reported in March, ride-hailing platform Rapido is gearing up to launch its much-anticipated food delivery service , Ownly, with a limited pilot in Bengaluru over the the move, Rapido will go head-to-head against its investor, Swiggy, which led a $180 million round in the startup in 2022, and holds a minority stake in the bike-taxi is not just joining the party, but it's also hoping to shake things Top 5 and Morning Dispatch are must-reads for India's tech and business leaders, including startup founders, investors, policy makers, industry insiders and Reach out to us at spotlightpartner@ to explore sponsorship cofounders S Karthik Venkateswaran (L) and Ashish JhinaB2B ecommerce marketplace Jumbotail has become India's fifth unicorn of 2025 after raising $120 million in a funding round led by SC Ventures, the investment arm of Standard Chartered. The raise comes at a time when the space faces subdued investor interest and cooling Sachan, founder, AppsForBharatAppsForBharat, the company behind the online puja platform Sri Mandir, has raised $20 million in a funding round led by Susquehanna Asia Venture Capital. Existing investors, including Nandan Nilekani's Fundamentum, Elevation Capital, and Peak XV Partners, also participated in the cofounders Aaditya Sharda (L) and Souvik SenguptaConstruction materials platform has secured an additional $50 million in debt from Mars Growth Capital to support its expansion ahead of an IPO. This brings its total borrowing to $150 is the company's second fundraise in 2025. In January, it secured $125 million to support growth in both Indian and international markets. The new deal also includes a five-year extension of the terms of its previous $100 million Zuckerberg's hiring spree is increasing global demand and prices for AI talent. However, India still provides a cost advantage , and some of that demand may move talent pool is expanding rapidly, but it still falls short in high-end AI R&D. For now, the $100 million 'superintelligence' researchers remain based in the US, an expert told Aggarwal, founder, Ola ElectricOla Electric, once a leader in India's EV two-wheeler market, stayed in third position in June , behind TVS Motor and Bajaj Technology Solutions has issued a new request for Infosys to identify employees who allegedly accessed confidential information about its healthcare software platform, investment firm cofounded by former Cognizant chief executive Francisco D'Souza raised over $1.7 billion for its second fund to invest in next-generation digital services.■ Out of space: Picturing the big, crowded business of satellite internet ( Rest of World ■ The Kodak brand gets a second life ( New York Times ■ Microsoft says its new AI system diagnosed patients 4 times more accurately than human doctors ( Wired
Economic Times
19 hours ago
- Business
- Economic Times
AppsForBharat raises $20 million in round led by Susquehanna Asia Venture Capital
AppsForBharat, the parent company of devotional platform Sri Mandir, has raised $20 million in a funding round led by Susquehanna Asia Venture Capital. The round also saw participation from other existing investors Nandan Nilekani's Fundamentum, Elevation Capital and Peak XV Partners. The funds will be used to invest in over 20 temple towns in India, strengthen services and commerce verticals, and set up fulfilment and logistics hubs. 'On the devotee side, we are further investing in the product to help it grow in multiple languages. We are also investing heavily in AI-led experiences, where users will be assisted in their devotional journeys and more,' founder and chief executive Prashant Sachan told ET in an interaction. Founded in November 2020 by IIT Bombay alumni Prashant Sachan, Sri Mandir offers a virtual platform where devotees can perform pujas, connect with prayer groups, and access devotional content, including spiritual texts, scriptures, and videos. In the last 12 months, 12 lakh devotees have performed 52 lakh online pujas and offerings at over 70 temples across India. The startup plans to set up 20 logistics hubs by the end of this year. It currently operates warehouses in eight towns.'The question for us is whether we can invest in physical infrastructure in or near that temple town, which would help us conduct our online services much more efficiently and enable temples to deliver offerings to devotees directly from that location. That is what the investment is all about,' Sachan Bengaluru-based firm had raised $18 million in September last year. Startups in this space have experienced rapid growth, attracting significant investments from venture capital (VC) firms in recent months. They have also been capitalising on various religious events to expand their user base and drive growth. Other key players in this space include DevDham and to Sachan, the company's revenue has doubled over the past six months, without disclosing further details. It now has about three million monthly active users, he said. The startup serves devotees in six international markets, with around 20% of its demand coming from the Indian diaspora residing in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UAE. Earlier, ET had reported that AppsForBharat plans to expand into regions with large NRI presence like Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa, and the richer neighbourhoods of Europe. This comes at a time when devotional platforms are expanding their reach beyond India, targeting the affluent and culturally connected Indian diaspora to boost both sales and subscriber numbers. On July 7 last year, ET reported that a post-pandemic surge in online engagement and a growing interest in spiritual practices in recent times have revived the fortunes of apps offering spiritual and devotional services. Commenting on the investment, Sai Araveti, investment advisor, Susquehanna Asia VC, 'Sri Mandir has demonstrated exceptional execution in building foundational infrastructure for digital devotional services, while simultaneously enabling temples to serve devotees across geographical boundaries better."
