Livin’ On a Prayer
Spirituality & Devotion meet Technology in India
Every single day, millions of Indian wake up and send each other “good morning” messages across Whatsapp and text. So many messages in fact, that it actually used to clog up the internet a few years ago. But cheery messages on images of birds and sunrises aside, the other thing that millions of Indians do every morning is to perform “puja.” A brief daily rite involving offering flowers and/or fruits along with a small prayer to an image of a god, this ritual is performed across the country in many households.
India’s massive population is as devout as it is diverse. According to a 2021 report by the Pew Research Centre, nearly all Indians (97%!) say they believe in God, making it amongst the most god-fearing nations in the world. Not only are Indians religious, they also seem to have a deep connect with their religious roots and traditions.
More recently, with the rise of smartphones and fall of data prices, Indians have started harnessing technology to access religious, spiritual and devotional content. As of Sept.2023, 6 of the top 10 podcasts on Spotify India were related to religion. Similarly, YouTube’s most subscribed channel globally (T-Series) has created a separate channel dedicated exclusively to devotional content. “T-Series Bhakti Sagar” has amassed ~63 million subscribers and its most watched video has 5.4 billion (!) views.
Side note: A July 2023 Statista report shows that India also has the maximum number (467 million) of monthly YouTube users in the world.
A confluence of tailwinds, such as cheaper smartphones and lower data costs, has ensured millions of Indians have gone online in the last few years. And they are now adapting apps to fit their own needs and skills. With the Covid-19 pandemic ensuring access to places of worship was restricted for almost a year, this was the rocket-boost required for a new breed of apps to rise and provide a service sought by millions of devout Indians. An Economic Times article from last year reported that astrologers and pandits (Hindu priests) had moved online and some were earning a jaw-dropping ₹5–9L per month at the upper end.
Market Sizing
If the Pew report is accurate and 97% of India is religious, it would put the TAM at over a billion persons. According to a 2019 report by Sattva Consulting, ways in which people give their time and money in India is valued at about $2.5 billion+, and informal giving towards religious and spiritual causes is worth over $1 billion. A 2020–21 report by the Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy (CSIP) at Ashoka University says religious organisations annually receive cash donations over $2 billion from Indian households.
More recently, a report by IMARC Group titled “Religious and Spiritual Market” estimated the value of the Indian market at $54 billion in 2022. It’s projected to surge to over $97 billion by 2028, demonstrating a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.3% over the next five years, encompassing religious tourism as well. It’s no surprise, then, that this segment has piqued the interest of investors keen to capitalize on this extensive and previously untapped opportunity.
India Landscape & Funding
How should one think about the landscape in this sector? Tracxn has a map of the split of Religion-Tech apps overseas that shows the sector as below.
Drawing some parallels from the above, we could splice the Indian market in a similar manner.
1. B2C — Primarily for consumers to access services
- Religious / Devotional — SriMandir, DevDarshan, ShubhPuja, 27 Mantraa, MyPandit etc.
- Wellbeing / Astrology — Paavan, AstroTalk, AstroVed, InstaAstro, Emerging Vision etc.
- Community / Media — Sutradhar, RGYAN, Utsav, Sadhana.app etc. Apps like Kuku FM have also started catering to this segment by having separate podcasts targeted at the religious.
2. Commerce — Primarily for consumers to buy products
- Examples: Phool.co, Poojai, Cycle Pure, Nirmalaya etc.
3. B2B — Primarily for priests, temples etc.
- Examples: Faith, Kshethrasuvidham, 3ioNetra etc.
These last few months have seen a flurry of funding in this space. “Funding winter” may be applicable for the rest of India but this space seems to be (almost miraculously) bucking the trend. Divine intervention? 😅
Business Model
According to PitchBook/TechCrunch data, faith-based, mostly Christian, apps attracted $175 million in venture funding as of 2021 in USA & Europe. This was more than triple the $48.5 million they attracted from VCs in 2020. The trend continued in 2022 as well. The most well known of these apps are Glorify and Hallow which have raised $85 million and $157 million respectively till date, and attracted the likes of a16z and Softbank. Both of these apps use a “freemium” model and rely on subscriptions for monetisation of users.
Indian startups, much like their Western counterparts, employ a combination of subscription models and in-app purchases to monetize their user base. In addition to providing direct access to astrologers and priests, these platforms offer premium features for a recurring subscription fee. Users can enjoy guided prayer routines, personalized meditation programs, access to a library of stories, chants, and religious discourses, among other offerings.
Interestingly though, Indian startups differ from their Western counterparts in a few ways. Namely, they also get their revenue from two unique and distinctly India-centric services: chadhava (offerings of fruits, flowers, condensed milk, incense sticks etc. to a deity) and e-puja (virtual prayer ceremony). Most of the religious apps allow users to book elaborate prayer ceremonies in distant temples and also offer chadhava to their chosen deity for a fee. The apps manage the backend of booking priests, buying the offerings, getting the offerings via the priests into the inner sanctum of the temple, filming the priests reciting the desired prayers and blessing the specific user etc. All of this can then be seen and tracked virtually by users. The apps’ operations teams even ensure physical packets of prasad (temple offering of ‘holy’ food) are later sent to the users to close the loop.
User monetisation will thus remain the key. While the DAU/MAU numbers may be impressive and usage statistics off the charts, they need to start translating into online spends fast. And Indian apps are quickly finding imaginative and unique ways of getting users to spend online.
A great example of scaling profitably is AstroTalk. As of April 2022, the company employed over 2,500 astrologers and was providing over 180,000 minutes of daily astrological consultation over chat + call. In FY22, AstroTalk had revenues of ₹115 crore with ₹5.7 crore of profit. Entrackr reported that it closed FY23 with more than ₹280 crore in revenue (2x+) and nearly ₹30 crore in profit (5x+). The company claims it is highly youth-centric with 90% of its revenue coming from customers under the age of 35. This may explain why they use famous Indian celebrities like Ranbir Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor for promotional campaigns.
Most of the other players though are yet to break even. These however are very early days and and the scale achieved by AstroTalk is promising news. It serves as validation for the untapped potential of this market. From a unit economics perspective, given the high repeat usage and retention and low input costs, it may be possible to see contribution margins start to move up as CAC comes down. Venture Monk estimates eventual EBITDA of ~20%-25% may be possible at scale at least for the services startups mentioned above.
While these startups may help those seeking divinity or spirituality, they themselves will need to seek profitability. Because let’s admit, the real world still demands its dues and investors will be on a quest for more earthly things such as profitability and IRR eventually. How many of these startups will be able to bridge this gap between the divine and the dollar? Nobody knows. And instead of a “winner take all” we may even see individual winners emerge in independent, verticalised segments. The future of spiritual-tech (devotion-tech? religion-tech?) however remains interesting enough to track in the near term and the final answer may lie somewhere between enlightenment and a smooth, wholesome app experience.
If you enjoyed reading this, please consider following us here and on Twitter. We’re also on Substack if you prefer reading this there. Stay tuned for more deep dives and sector analyses. Until next time!
