米国に住んでいたTrivedi家族は、ヒンドゥー教の神シヴァの聖なる表現であるインドのジョーティリンガの一つで儀式的な崇拝を行う解決策を探していました。2023年のある日曜日、家族はYouTubeでインドの寺院で花やその他のアイテムを儀式的に供える方法を探していると、新興の信者向けアプリであるSri Mandirについての動画を見つけました。
このアプリは、インドの50以上のヒンドゥー教寺院から儀式の祈りのカスタマイズされた動画を提供し、ユーザーがiPhoneやAndroidのスマートフォンから仮想的に祈りに参加し、寄付を行い、信仰に関するコンテンツにアクセスすることを可能にします。これがTrivedi家族が求めていたものでした。
それから約1年が経ち、TrivedisはまだSri Mandirを利用しています。ある家族のメンバーはTechCrunchに対して、このアプリがユーザーに急な祈りをさせ、故郷から遠く離れているにもかかわらず、信仰の寺院に寄付を行うのを助けてくれると語りましたが、それにはかなりの高いコストがかかります。インド国外でのSri Mandirの平均月間支出は100ドルです。
利用者は述べています。「Sri Mandirは単にルピーをドルに換算し、かなりの金額になります。これは超プレミアムアプリであり、予算が低い人には向いていません」と。
このアプリは成長する需要に対応しています。何年も前から、世界中のヒンドゥー教徒は、平和や幸福、良好な関係を求めて神々や女神の寺院を訪れ、寄付をし、祈りに参加しています。しかし、信心深いサービスや宗教情報へのアクセスは、これまでインドでは主にオフラインで無秩序でした。
以前にソーシャルコマーススタートアップTrellを共同設立したシリアル起業家のプラシャント・サチャンは、Uttar Pradesh州の工業都市カンプルに近い村出身でSri Mandirの親会社であるAppsForBharatを2020年11月に設立しました。彼は、インドの農村部からもオンラインになり始めていたことに気付きましたが、国の信仰実践は従来通りにオフラインのままでした。
サチャンはインタビューで次のように述べています。「私たちが実験を始めたとき、信仰は私たちが考え始めたふるまいで、私たちにはまだ得られていないレベルの注目を受けるべきだと考えました」と。
The three-year-old app boasts more than 30 million downloads since 2020, and just opened its access to markets outside India in January. Since then, Sachan told TechCrunch, the app has grown 25% to 30% month-on-month and garnered 500,000 registered users and 2.5 million installs outside India. Most of its global audience comes from the U.S., followed by Canada, the U.K. and the Middle East.
Sachan said the main users of Sri Mandir outside India are first and second-generation Indian-Americans who don’t often visit temples in India but want to connect to their roots.
This global footprint has helped Sri Mandir grow its revenues, which it generates from the small-ticket transactions users make through the app by offering prayers and donations. Currently, 25% Sri Mandir’s total revenue comes from outside India.
Alongside enabling users to connect with the temples of their faith, Sri Mandir helps priests in those temples get more devotees, eventually allowing them to earn more money. By dedicating five to six hours a week to the app, a priest typically makes about 25% to 30% more than their regular income from daily operations.
Manoj, a priest at Trimbakeshwar Shiva temple, located in the town of Trimbak in India’s western state of Maharashtra, told TechCrunch that Sri Mandir helps devotees, even those who aren’t physically fit but keen to participate in occasional prayers.
The priest gets 40 to 50 devotees through the Sri Mandir app weekly. He noted that the app also helps priests get more payments from devotees — the app charges individual users even for group prayers, whereas groups visiting the temple in person may not all pay individually. Manoj acknowledged, however, that it lacks the divine vibe that people get by physically being at a temple. He compared it to the difference between taking medicines at home and getting complete treatment after being admitted to a hospital.
AppsForBharat now hopes to help Sri Mandir reach more even more users. The Bengaluru-based startup has raised $18M in a Series B round led by Indian billionaire and tech veteran Nandan Nilekani’s Fundamentum Partnership.
The most downloaded app for Hindus
Sri Mandir is not alone in the market of devotional apps in the country: DevDham, Vama.app and Utsav offer similar offerings.
Nonetheless, with 30 million downloads since 2020, Sri Mandir is the only Hindu-focused app among the top 100 most downloaded devotional apps in the world, according to Sensor Tower data shared exclusively with TechCrunch.
Bhagavad Gita in Hindi (2 million downloads) and Sanatan (2 million) are the other most downloaded global Hindu devotional apps since 2020, per Sensor Tower.
That said, Sri Mandir is far behind globally in the most downloaded devotional apps. According to Sensor Tower, YouVersion Bible App (274 million downloads), Muslim Pro (132 million downloads), and King James Bible (122 million downloads) were the top three devotional apps since 2014.
Within India, Bible App for Kids (22 million downloads) and Muslim Pro (10 million downloads) are the two other most downloaded devotional apps — both trailing Sri Mandir.
On the revenues front, Hallow Prayer & Meditation is the highest-grossing app worldwide since 2020, where consumers have spent over $84 million on in-app purchases, per Sensor Tower. Sri Mandir, on the other hand, has garnered less than $100,000 in in-app purchases since 2020, according to Sensor Tower.
This is lower than the number one devotional app in India by consumer spending, the Joseph Prince Gospel Partner app, which has received over $300,000 in in-app purchases in India since 2020.
次は: 宗教的な観光
With its latest funding round, AppsForBharat plans to add features with the goal of capturing 5% to 10% of what it believes is a $50 billion potential market.
One of them is religious tourism through Sri Mandir.
Sachan told TechCrunch the startup plans help users make plans to visit temples and pilgrimage sites through its platform, in part by striking partnerships with traditional travel aggergators. The executive said that religious tourism pilots have already started with a select group of devotees.
The app will also facilitate special tickets for visiting sacred shrines and delivering prasad (food offerings to idols) and related devotional goods.
Further, the startup plans to build “a complex tech stack” with a CRM-like experience for temples and historical places in India. These services will initially be available for free, but the company eventually plans to charge them for managing those services, Sachan said.
The startup also intends to grow its temple network 10x, to 500 temples, in the next 12 to 18 months.
The company’s all-equity Series B round also saw participation from Susquehanna Asia VC, as well as AppsForBharat’s existing investors: Elevation Capital, Mirae Asset VC and Peak XV.
