ApplicationsThe Indian boot behind Hindu dedicated application Sri mandirIt has raised $ 20 million in a new round – just more than nine months after securing $ 18 million – as the application continues to attract not only the dedicated but also the strong interest of investors.
Susquehanna Asia Venture Capital has led the C series round with the participation of existing investors, including Indian billionaire and technological veteran Nandan Nilekani Fundamentum Partnership, Elevation Capital and Peak XV Partners.
Religious dedication runs deep in India, where there are 53 temples for every 100,000 people. Nearly 2 million Hindus from Hindus are performing at home with local priests or temples to seek peace and prosperity. Hindu’s economy to the temple is Worth ₹ 3.02 trillion (About $ 40 billion) or almost 2.3% of India’s GDP per survey by the Indian government’s national sample office. Despite this scale, services, including prayers and bids, are largely offline, disorganized and fragmented. Appsforbharat says it resolves these challenges with Sri Mandir.
Founded in November 2020, Appsforbharat introduced SRI Mandir shortly after to serve Hindus devotees with online prayers and the ability to make bids substantially to Indian temples. The application has garnered more than 40 million downloads from its circulation. In the last 12 months, it has allowed 1.2 million devotees to perform online prayers and offer offers in more than 70 temples across India.
Currently, Sri Mandir has about 3.5 million monthly active users, including about 90,000 from external India. While the users base of the application remains mainly domestic, the media per user (ARPU) abroad is significantly higher- about 7,000 (about $ 81), compared to ₹ 600-800 ($ 7- $ 9) in India. Specifically, almost 20% of the platform’s revenue comes from the Indian Diaspora in the US, the United Kingdom, the UAE, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, according to Bangalore -based start.
Meanwhile, the number of registered SRI Mandir users outside India is increasing to 15% quarter-Quarter, reaching 700,000.
In a domestic market, the Indian application users of the application is evenly divided between cities in class-1 and category-2, with 30% of users under 35 years of age. Outside of India, the majority of users are men and women aged 30 and older.
In early 2025, Sri Mandir exceeded the percentage of $ 12 million, Appsforbharat Prashant Sachan’s founder and chief executive said in an interview.
The application also has a six -month retention rate of about 55%, which means that more than half of users remain active six months after their first participation.
“The application was maintained and primary because these transactions are something that the user will do throughout the year, many times a year,” Sachan told TechCrunch.
Users’ behavior patterns vary according to geography. There is an overlap of 20% to 25% among users in India who make both prayers and offer offers through the application. In the US, the application sees an even higher overlap, with about 50% of the whole base of users engaged in the two activities as it is far from Indian temples.
While Hindu devotion services are largely off -connection in India, some temples have begun live and acceptance of online bids. In response, some applications have been highlighted to take over the success of Sri Mandir. However, Sachan said competitive applications in combination would only represent 15% up to 20% of Sri Mandir’s cumulative facilities.
Like other online platforms, Sri Mandir takes a cut from the temples to bring them to the internet. The average reception is 20% to 25%, but varies depending on the services offered. The start also introduces gradual items such as goods from the well -known temples to extend its revenue beyond prayer and cuts.
It is important that SRI Mandir also helps increase revenue for temples by 15% to 25%, as they attract more online devotees.
Is still the top application of worshiping Hinduist
The market for religious applications has shown growth everywhere, but especially in India. Worldwide, the top 10 religious applications increased by 15% on a monthly basis to monthly active users in the first half of 2025, even with a 2% reduction in downloads. India’s religious markets market has exceeded this global trend, with the top 10 applications recording an increase of 60% to monthly active users and a 50% increase in downloads.
Paradoxically, while India’s religious applications market went up, Sri Mandir lost a small ground. The application was ranked among the top 35 religious applications worldwide and held the top position among religious applications in India in the first half of 2024. This year, it fell second in India, which surpassed the Lifechurch.TV application, which claims to have more than 80 million average per month.
However, Sri Mandir remains the top application of worship Hindu, however.
Overall, religious technological funding in India reached its climax in 2024, attracting only $ 50.5 million of that year, while global funding on the site culminated earlier in 2021, followed by a gradual decline, according to the Indian private market. India has represented 15% of total global investment in religious technology since 2020, making the second largest post -US market for funding.
Appsforbharat has emerged as the top boot in this area, raising $ 33.4 million before the C series tour per Tracxn.
“Religious technology businesses are increasingly gaining the world’s ledge, especially in economies such as India, due to the importance of culture and religion between demographics, coupled with increasing internet penetration, digital payments and increasing adoption of e-commerce.
With the new funding, Appsforbharat plans to invest in more than 20 temples in India, starting from Varanasi and Ayodhya in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, Haridwar in Uttarakhand and Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, Central India. The start will open natural facilities in these cities to create supply and fulfillment nodes throughout the temple network, manage the delivery of food bids (Prasad) and other rituals.
Each of these natural facilities will handle 40,000 to 50,000 orders and contribute to local employment, Sachan said.
In addition, starting enhances the user’s experience in its implementation with features led by AI, including the ability to ask questions about faith, specific prayers and festivals, which users would usually ask for a priest or their elders.
The start will work with experts on the subject and will develop safeguards to prevent illusion cases, where AI is information in itself, Sachan said.
Appsforbharat aims to achieve profitability by 2027-28 and plans to be ready for a public list during the same window, although Sachan said he still does not have a definitive IPO schedule.
In general, the start aims to develop the base of the temple in 500 this year and extends its number from 300 people, including 250 at its Bangalore headquarters, to about 400.
