AppsForBharat, the parent company of devotional app Sri Mandir, has raised Rs 175 crore (approximately $20 million) in a Series C funding round led by Susquehanna Asia Venture Capital. Existing investors Nandan Nilekani’s Fundamentum, Elevation Capital, and Peak XV Partners also participated in the round.
The funding will be used to expand the app’s presence in over 20 temple towns, including Varanasi, Ayodhya, Ujjain, and Haridwar. The company said it plans to build fulfilment hubs in these locations, scale up its commerce and services verticals, and introduce artificial intelligence-driven features to improve user experience. Local hiring to support on-ground operations is also part of the expansion plan.
Sri Mandir, launched in 2020, allows users to participate in online rituals such as pujas and offerings (chadhava), receive prasad, and access devotional content. According to the company, over the past year, 12 lakh devotees conducted 52 lakh online rituals across more than 70 temples using the platform. Nearly 20% of user activity comes from the Indian diaspora in countries such as the US, UK, UAE, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Founder and CEO Prashant Sachan, an alumnus of IIT Bombay, said the platform has seen significant growth in recent months. “We have grown 2X in the last six months and have created year-round revenue opportunities for priests, vendors, and temple service providers,” he said in a statement.
Sri Mandir also claims to be contributing to increased offline footfall in temples, with online puja bookings adding 25–30% in additional income for partner shrines. The company now aims to deepen digital engagement with AI-powered features to assist users in navigating rituals, festivals, and content recommendations.
India is home to more than 6.5 lakh temples, generating around Rs 3 lakh crore annually through spiritual services, commerce, and tourism, according to company estimates. AppsForBharat sees this space as largely fragmented and offline, and is positioning Sri Mandir as a platform to formalise and modernise the devotional economy. Susquehanna Asia, which first backed the company in 2024, said Sri Mandir’s evolution from a services marketplace to a broader spiritual platform was key to its continued support.