VAMA Bags INR 22 Cr To Enter Offline Travel Segment

SUMMARY

The round was led by existing investor Wavemaker Partners and also saw participation from 500 Global, Sadev Ventures, Venture Catalysts, and Silverneedle Ventures

VAMA plans to use the capital to expand into new categories such as spiritual ecommerce and offline spiritual travel, while also deepening its product offerings

VAMA currently has a user base of 150K and aims to reach 1 Mn users in the next 24 months

Spiritual tech startup VAMA has raised INR 22 Cr ($2.5 Mn) in its pre-Series A round led by existing investor Wavemaker Partners.

The round also saw participation from 500 Global, Sadev Ventures, Venture Catalysts, Silverneedle Ventures, and angel investors like Centrum International Services director Alok Nanavaty, Tata Play CEO Harit Nagpal, Swati Parikh, and Mahesh Kamdar.

In a statement, the startup said it plans to use the capital to expand into new categories such as spiritual ecommerce and offline spiritual travel, while also deepening its product offerings and scaling marketing efforts.

The startup also plans to launch services for the global NRI market.

Founded in 2020 by Manu Jain and Aacharya Dev, VAMA offers e-pujas, e-darshans, and astrology services for devotees across India. As of June this year, VAMA claims to have conducted more than 5 Lakh e-pujas and e-chadavas and expanded to 20+ tier I & II cities.

VAMA claimed that its revenue doubled to INR 19.5 Cr in FY24 and it expects it to grow 2X in FY25 as well. It added that it has been “consistently” contribution margin positive, with margins above 10%, and expects to achieve EBITDA profitability as it doubles scale.

Breaking down its revenue composition, VAMA said temple services currently account for 30% of its revenue. The remaining 30% comes from astrology services and VAMA Mall, the startup’s ecommerce platform that sells spiritual products like rudraksha, crystals, artifacts, among others.

VAMA currently has a user base of 150K and is aiming to reach 1 Mn users in the next 24 months, while expanding its temple supply to 500 from 250.

Prior to this funding round, VAMA had raised a total funding of about $4.3 Mn (approx) from the likes of Blume Founders Fund, Huddle Ventures, Alluvium and Untitled VC, among others.

The startup operates in the booming spiritual tech segment, which is seeing a strong demand for young tech-savvy consumers. The spiritual tech startups allow users to do digital pujas, temple darshans, and more, making their spiritual journey convenient.

The religious and spiritual market in India had a size of $58.6 Bn in 2024 and is expected to surpass $151.9 Bn by 2034, according to EMR’s report on Indian religious and spiritual market.

As a result, investors are betting big on the startups operating in the segment. Last month, Sri Mandir parent AppsForBharat raised INR 175 Cr (about $20 Mn) in its Series C funding round led by Susquehanna Asia VC. Earlier this year, Utsav App raised INR 6.35 Cr in a round led by Equanimity Investments.