Spiritual apps get blessed with more users, investors post Covid

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

online engagement and growing interest in spiritual practices have revived the fortunes of apps offering spiritual and devotional services. Apps such as Astrotalk, AppsForBharat, Vama.app, DevDham and Utsav are riding this wave, with some even providing a fillip to spiritual tourism, according to industry executives.

Covid-19 has been a boon for spiritual and astrology apps, said Manu Jain, cofounder of Vama.app, a New Delhi-based startup that allows users to book virtual pujas as well as temple darshans and rituals besides offering astrology services.

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To be sure, platforms such as SmartPuja, Harivara and ePuja offering similar services that were launched before the pandemic have not met with equal success.

“It was not until one or two years ago that venture capitalists began recognising solid, cash-generating businesses in this space,” according to Jain, who claims his app is currently clocking an annual revenue run rate of $2 million, or about Rs 16.7 crore.

Vama.app has 400,000 monthly active users with 32,000 monthly transacting users.

“I feel, to some extent, even Hinduism has in the last 10 years come more to the forefront,” Jain told ET.

The inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya had also triggered a boom in usage of devotional apps — with