AppsForBharat, the parent company of devotional app Sri Mandir, has raised Rs 175 crore (around $20 million) in a Series C 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 round.
The funding comes at a time when demand for online puja services and spiritual engagement has surged post-pandemic, especially among younger users and the Indian diaspora, prompting platforms like Sri Mandir to deepen their technology and physical presence.
The Bengaluru-based company plans to use the funds to expand operations across 20 temple towns in India, including Ayodhya, Varanasi, Ujjain, and Haridwar. The capital will be deployed to set up logistics and service fulfillment hubs, boost hiring in temple towns, and develop AI-led features for users on the app.
In an interaction with Moneycontrol, founder and CEO Prashant Sachan said, “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.”
Sachan said the company is setting up fulfillment hubs to improve delivery of ritual-related products like prasad and offerings (charhawa), which were earlier managed informally.
“We are investing in temple towns, setting up logistics and fulfillment hubs that will generate local employment and power services like Charhawa and Prasad delivery,” he told Moneycontrol.
AppsForBharat, launched in 2020 launched its platform Sri Mandir which enables users to book online pujas, offer rituals to partner temples, receive prasad, and access devotional content.
According to the company, over the last year, 12 lakh devotees have completed 52 lakh pujas and offerings across 70 more partner temples.
“In the last 12 months, 12 lakh devotees have done pujas and charhawas 52 lakh times. Our key business metrics have doubled in the last six months,” Sachan said.
Sachan also outlined the company’s AI roadmap.
“We are investing in creating an assistance layer, an AI agent that acts like a family pandit. It will help users with rituals, processes, and context-specific devotion based on region, community, and faith,” he said.
This feature, currently in limited release, is expected to be rolled out publicly within a month.
He clarified that the AI capability leverages AppsForBharat’s internal content repository. “We’re not building foundational models, but we’ve created one of the largest verified devotional content libraries over the last four years, which powers our AI assistant.”
The company generates revenue exclusively from paid services on its app, with about 7 percent of users currently paying for services.
“Sri Mandir is a free app with paid services. 7% of our users pay for rituals like puja and charhawa, all our revenue comes from these services,” Sachan noted.
Sri Mandir also has a global user base, with nearly 20 percent of its demand coming from the Indian diaspora in the US, UK, UAE, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
“Our operations are in India, but we’re acquiring users globally, especially NRIs. They engage with our services like online puja from anywhere,” Sachan said.
On job creation, Sachan said the company expects to employ 500–1,000 people or gigworkers across fulfillment hubs in temple towns over the next couple of years. “Each hub will hire 10–20 locals,” he said.
AppsForBharat is also exploring new product lines but is cautious about entering saturated categories like astrology marketplaces.
“We won’t do astrology the way marketplaces do it, no pay-per-minute consultations. But we offer free services like Kundli creation and daily analysis,” Sachan said.
The company’s most recent fundraise prior to this round was $18 million in its Series B in 2024. SIG, which held a small stake from that round, has significantly increased its investment in this round. Sachan said, “We had more offers but chose to raise a modest round with existing backers as we were dilution sensitive.”
Sachan added that two of India’s top 10 temples are expected to onboard the platform soon, though details are yet to be announced.
The company’s focus, he said, remains on building trust in a traditionally fragmented and informal faith-tech ecosystem.
“Devotion is a low-trust space. People doubt how a temple can partner with a company. But when they try it once and receive a Prasad box, they come back.”
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
