Kuku FM To Launch A Separate Spiritual App With Eye On Expansion

Mumbai-based audiobook platform Kuku FM is launching a separate spiritual app, Bhakti, as a part of its effort to expand service offerings. 

This app is planned for launch at the Maha Kumbh Mela 2025, one of the largest religious gatherings in the world.

Bhakti offers spirituality-themed shows in India via its audio OTT (over the top) platform, catering to devotees across all age groups, with a dedicated team and resources to expand its library of shows over the next one year.

Kuku FM said in a statement that the app currently houses more than 2,000 hours of over 500 spirituality-themed shows, audiobooks, bhajans, lessons and similar other content, where listeners can choose their desirable content around Indian festivals and spiritual chants.

The long-form audio shows contain tales of India’s spiritual heritage and mythology, including Bhagwad Gita, Mahabharat, Ram Katha and Vishnu Puran among others. Also, the company has plans to double Bhakti’s library catalogue, while also adding multiple languages apart from Hindi.

“There is a dearth of high-quality professionally produced premium shows in this genre and we intend to fill this gap with this app. We have drawn inspiration from our rich heritage and have high quality audio shows spanning content across mythology, spirituality, devotion, rituals as well as chants and bhajans,” Jhoomer Sinha, vice president of Hindi Business India, Kuku FM said.

Sinha added, “In the beta stage, we have received a resounding response from users with 500K downloads and extremely positive feedback.”

This development comes at a time when the Indian religious and spiritual market, which stood at $58.56 Bn in 2023, is expected to clock a CAGR of 10% until 2032, where spiritualtech startups facilitate e-darshan, e-pooja, and prasad delivery at the doorstep.

In September 2024, online astrology platform Astrotalk strengthened its market position with the roll out of its new venture in the spiritual ecommerce space, with a vision of building a INR 100 Cr revenue business in the following months.

For some time now, a host of spiritual tech platforms have gained investor interests’ to fuel their expansion plans.

For instance, Bengaluru-based AppsForBharat, which runs spiritual tech platform Sri Mandir, has secured $18 Mn (around INR 151.1 Cr) to scale up operations of its Sri Mandir app, onboard new temples, among others.

Furthermore, Astrotalk raised INR 110 Cr ($14 Mn) in a mix of primary and secondary funding to expand its product portfolio and shore up offerings in regional languages, while also ramping up its global presence, and expanding its team size.

With the new spiritual platform in place, Kuku FM is foraying into India’s music streaming and astrology market by offering devotional music and astrology-centred original content available on Bhakti platform.

On the financial side, Kuku FM reported an operating revenue of INR 88 Cr in the financial year ending March 31, 2024, a 114% higher than INR 41.1 Cr it had reported a year back. 

Meanwhile, the startup’s total loss stood at INR 96 Cr in FY24, 18% lower than INR 116.5 Cr it incurred in the last fiscal year.