INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Fundamentum Partnership, Elevation Capital, and Peak XV Partners.Religious devotion runs deep in India, where there are 53 temples for every
Nearly 2 million Hindu devotees perform prayers at home with local priests or at temples to seek peace and well-being
National Sample Survey Office
Despite this scale, services including prayers and offerings are largely offline, unorganized, and fragmented
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
according to the Bengaluru-based startup.Image Credits:Jagmeet Singh / A Technology NewsRoomMeanwhile, the number of registered Sri Mandir
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
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 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
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
monthly active users globally.Image Credits:Jagmeet Singh / A Technology NewsRoomSri 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 A
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
especially in economies like India, owing to the importance of culture and religion among the demographic, combined with the rise in
invest in over 20 temple towns in India, starting with Varanasi and Ayodhya in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, Haridwar in Uttarakhand,
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
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.
