My Tirth India ‘Temporarily’ Shuts Operations Citing Lack Of Funds

SUMMARY

My Tirth India founder Indraneel Dasgupta said that the startup has decided to temporarily cease operations due to funding crunch and the demise of its principal shareholder and investor Subrata Roy

Roy, the founder and managing director of Sahara India Pariwar, had invested nearly $1 Mn into the startup

Founded in 2019, My Tirth India offered a one-stop solution for pilgrims and tourists to travel around India’s top religious destinations. It also provided services like travel loans, online pooja, prasad delivery, among others

Spiritual tech startup My Tirth India has “temporarily” shut operations due to a lack of funds after the demise of its principal shareholder and investor Subrata Roy, its founder Indraneel Dasgupta told Inc42

“Since our investor and mentor, Mr Roy is no longer with us, without further help we will not be able to proceed. As of now, we have tried our level best with the skeletal stuff but it is not enough,” Dasgupta added.

Roy, the founder and managing director of Sahara India Pariwar, had invested nearly $1 Mn into the startup.

However, Dasgupta said that the startup will restart operations as soon as it gets funds. For now, My Tirth India has reduced its workforce from around 50 people to 10.

Founded in 2019 by Dasgupta, My Tirth India offered a one-stop solution for pilgrims and tourists to travel around India’s top religious destinations, including Lucknow, Varanasi, Kolkata. Besides, it also sold spiritual products like incense sticks, dhoop, idols, among others.

It also provided a wide range of services like travel loans, online pooja, prasad delivery, astrology, and spiritual blog posts. It counted Zoomcar, Vivada Cruises, FabHotels and Aviva Life Insurance, among its partners.

The startup’s net loss more than doubled to INR 2.68 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23) from INR 1.2 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Revenue from operations surged to INR 3.3 Cr from INR 89 Lakh in FY22, as per the data available on Tofler.

The development comes at a time when the spiritual tech space in the country is buzzing with activities. The Indian faith market’s size was estimated to be $58.56 Bn in 2023, with religious/ pilgrim tourism accounting for a major share in this sector.

This has led to the emergence of a number of startups in this space like Astrotalk, Ganeshaspeaks, Astrosage and Astroyogi. The sector has also been receiving a lot of interest from investors.

Earlier this year, Astrotalk raised INR 110 Cr in a mix of primary and secondary funding.