AppsForBharat, the Indian startup behind the Hindu devotional app Sri Mandir, has raised $20 million in a new round — just over nine months after securing $18 million — as the app continues to attract not only devotees but also strong investor interest.
Susquehanna Asia Venture Capital led the Series C round with participation from existing investors, including Indian billionaire and tech veteran Nandan Nilekani’s Fundamentum Partnership, Elevation Capital, and Peak XV Partners.
Religious devotion runs deep in India, where there are 53 temples for every 100,000 people. Nearly 2 million Hindu devotees perform prayers at home with local priests or at temples to seek peace and well-being. The Hindu temple economy is worth ₹3.02 trillion (about $40 billion) or nearly 2.3% of India’s GDP, per a survey by the Indian government’s National Sample Survey Office. Despite this scale, services including prayers and offerings are largely offline, unorganized, and fragmented. AppsForBharat says it’s solving these challenges with Sri Mandir.
Founded in November 2020, AppsForBharat introduced Sri Mandir shortly 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. While the app’s user base remains primarily domestic, its average revenue per user (ARPU) abroad is significantly higher — about ₹7,000 (roughly $81), compared to ₹600–800 ($7–$9) in India. Notably, nearly 20% of the platform’s revenue comes from the Indian diaspora in the U.S., U.K., UAE, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, according to the Bengaluru-based startup.
