Sri Mandir keeps investors hooked as digital devotion grows

AppSfortyIndian startup behind the Hindu devotional app Shri TempleCollected $ 20 million in a new round – just nine months later Secured $ 18 million – Since the app is attracting the interest of strong investors, not just fans.

Suscahanna has led the Asia Venture Capital Series C Round, with the participation of existing investors, including the Fundamentum Partnership of Indian Billionaire and Tech Veterran Nilakani, Nilakani, Elevation Capital and Pick XV Partners.

Religious devotion runs deep in India, where there are 53 temples for every 100,000 people. About 2 million Hindu devotees pray with the local priests or at home for peace and good health. The economy of the Hindu temple is that Price ₹ 3.02 trillion (About $ 1 billion) or about 2.5%of India’s GDP, according to a survey by the National Sample Survey Office of the Government of India. Despite this scale, services, including prayers and offers, are basically offline, unorganized and fragmented. AppSforvarat says it is resolving these challenges with the SRI Temple.

Established in November 2021, the Apps Farmersvar introduced the Sri Temple to the Temple online prayer and to serve the Sri Temple with virtually proposal to the Indian temples. Since the launch of the app, it has earned more than 40 million downloads. In the last 12 months, it has enabled 1.2 million fans to pray online and offer more than 70 temples across India.

Currently, the Sri Temple has about 3.5 million monthly active users, including about 90,000 outside India. Although the user base of the app is primarily domestic, the average income per user abroad (ARPU) is significantly higher – about $ 7,800 ($ 7- $ 9) in India, about $ 7,000 (about $ 81). Significantly, about 20% of the platform revenue came from the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, according to the Bengaluru-based startup.

Meanwhile, the number of SRI temple users registered outside India is increasing in quarter-over-quarters, reaching 700,000.

Domesticly, the Indian user base of the app is equally divided into Tear -1 and Tear -2 cities, including 5% of users under the age of 5. Out of India, most users are men and females of 30 or older.

In early 2021, the SRI Temple surpassed a 12 million run rate, the founder and CEO of the AppSforce, Prashant Sachhan said in an interview.

The app also has a six -month -old rate of about 55%, which means that more than half of the users are active six months after the first joining.

“The app is fluent and initial because these transactions are a thing that the user will do multiple times for a year,” Sachan told TechCrunch.

The type of user behavior is separated by geography. There are 20% to 25% overlap among Indian users who both pray and offer through the app. In the United States, the app is looking at the higher overlap, its entire user is involved in both activities of the base, as they are far from Indian temples.

Although Hindu devotion services are mainly offline in India, some temples have started live streaming and accepted online offers. In response, some applications have emerged to take the success of the SRI temple. However, Sachan said that the competitive applications would be combined with only 15% to 20% in the growing installs of the SRI temple.

Like other online platforms, the Sri Temple cuts from the temples to bring them online. The average acceptance rate is 20% to 25%, but it changes based on the services provided. Startup is slowly introducing items like merchandise from the naming temples that offer its revenue out of prayer and offer to cut.

Importantly, the SRI temple also attracts more fans online and helps to increase revenue from 15% to 25% for temples.

Continuing as the top Hindu devotional applications

Religious applications have shown the market everywhere, but especially in India. Worldwide, top 10 religious applications have increased by more than 15% of the monthly active users in the first half of 2025, even by 2% decrease in downloads. India’s Religious Application Market has surpassed this global trend, top 10 applications have recorded 60% growth in monthly active users and 50% increase in downloads.

Weirdly, the Sri Temple lost some field when the religious application of India was built in the market. This app is ranked among the top 35 religious applications worldwide, and in the first half of 2021, the top position in India’s religious applications. This year it has taken second place in India, Lifesch.TV has surpassed the Bible application, claiming that there are more than 5 million average active users worldwide.

However, the Sri Temple is the leading Hindu devotional app.

Overall, religious technology funding in India reached the top in 2021, attracted $ 1.5 million alone that year, when the global funds reached the top of the space in 2021, then gradually decreased, according to the tracker tracker of the Indian private market in data shared with Techchen. India has been 5% of the total global investment in religious technology since 2021, which has become the second largest market in the United States in terms of funding.

AppSforceberst has debuted as a top startup in these spaces, collecting $ 33.4 million per its series C. before round.

“Religious technologies are gaining global prominence worldwide, especially in the economy like India, because of the importance of culture and religion in demographics, the internet infiltration, digital payment and growing e-commerce, especially in Tier-2-5 cities.

With the new fund, AppSforces are planning to invest in more than 20 temples in India, starting with Varanasi and Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, Ujjain in Uttarakhand and Wazzine in central India. The startup will open the physical benefits to these cities to manage the logistics and fulfillment centers throughout its temple network, to manage food offers (prasad) and other pickles items.

Each of these physical facilities will handle 40,000 to 50,000 orders and contribute to local employment, Sachan said.

In addition, startup is enhanced the user’s experience in his app with AI-LED features, including faith, specific prayer and ability to ask questions about festivals, which users usually ask a priest or their elders.

Shothan said the startup would work with subject-subtter experts and set up security to prevent hallucinations, where AI made information on its own, said Sachan.

The goal of the AppSforcewarat is to achieve profitability between 202-25 and to be prepared for a public list during the same window, though Sachan said he has no specific IPO timeline.

In the nearest term, the startup’s goal is to increase its temple base this year and extend its headcount from about 300 people, including 250 at its headquarters in Bengaluru.