AppsForBharat, a spiritual-tech company that develops apps to meet Indian users’ spiritual and devotional needs, has raised $10 million in a Series A funding round led by Elevation Capital, with participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital India and BEENEXT, as well as Matrix Partners India. Leading angel investors included Scott Schleifer (Partner, Tiger Global), Saurabh Gupta (Managing Partner, DST Global), Ankush Sachdeva, Farid Ahsan, and Bhanu Pratap Singh (ShareChat Co-founders), Utsav Somani (Partner, iSeed), Anshumani Ruddra (Group PM, Google), Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal (Co-founders, Meesho), and Kun (Founder, CRED).
The monies raised will be used to develop content IPs, build the product, and hire personnel in the product, data, and engineering verticals. Sequoia Capital India, BEENEXT, and WEH Ventures had previously announced $4 million in seed funding for the startup in April 2021.
AppsForBharat is a product firm founded by Prashant Sachan in November 2020 with the goal of reimagining and digitising the experience of engaging with one’s faith. From daily prayers, event planning with almanacks, and reading scriptures, mantras, and horoscopes, to fasting and meditation, and finally, celebrating the social and cultural aspects of all festivals and auspicious occasions, spirituality and devotion are an integral part of the average Indian’s life (in the physical, offline world). People of all ages have recently expressed a strong desire to share their spirituality online.While the market today has apps that cater to individual needs like scriptures, stories, devotional audio, etc., they are often substandard. People do not have a go-to digital destination to engage in their faith holistically.
Commenting on the funding, Prashant Sachan, Founder, AppsForBharat, said, “We are grateful to have such great partners on our journey. As we continue building AppsForBharat, we are putting together a great team that is customer obsessed and approaching it the right way—focussing on user needs as well as driving delight and long-term retention. Our aim is to build products that users love, one that becomes a daily habit for a billion Indians, products that offer happiness and peace. If someone (reading this) is passionate about building products for such needs, we invite them to join our team.”
