VAMA Joins ONDC To Double Down On Spiritual Offerings

Virtual spirituality startup VAMA will be onboarding government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) to expand its services offering to more consumers through the network.

As a part of this onboarding onto the ONDC Network, VAMA will not only aim to provide services to a wider consumer base but also aims to enhance convenience for its existing users. 

Founded by Aacharya Dev, Himanshu Semwal and Manu Jain in 2020, VAMA.app is a virtual platform providing digital services like e-pujas, e-darshans, astrology and spiritual blog posts. It has partnered with over 250 temples and has a network of more than 300 astrologers. 

“With ONDC’s extensive reach, we can now welcome a vast audience eager to foster a deeper connection with their spirituality. This initiative will provide unparalleled access to spiritual guidance and live events, enabling us to offer a more immersive and meaningful spiritual journey,” Jain said. 

ONDC’s MD and CEO, T. Koshy said, “The addition of VAMA.app onto the Network showcases our open-for-all approach. We aim on becoming one stop shop for everyday needs for the where users can avail services for everyday needs right from commerce to spiritual.”

To date, it has raised about $2.8 Mn in total funding, with the latest in November last year when it raised 1.5 Mn in a seed round. 

VAMA.app’s onboarding is the latest entrant to the spiritual tech category on the network with ISKCON and Hari Bol being the existing entities. 

At the heart of this development is the disruption in the age-old devotion market with new-age tech. Besides this, new-age astrology startups have been attracting the attention of investors lately. 

Astrotalk, Ganeshaspeaks, Astrosage and Astroyogi are the top-performing startups in this category. 

According to a study, as of 2023, the Indian faith market stands at a whopping $58.56 Bn with religious / pilgrim tourism accounting for a major share in this sector.

With Indians tending to donate in the name of faith, devotion,  spirituality, and astrology, monetisation in the space is also said to be a relatively less challenging task.

On the back of growing demand, market players anticipate more VC funds entering the market, higher margins, increasing users and even companies going public in the not-so-distant future.

Meanwhile, multiple industry leaders that Inc42 spoke with have made a very interesting revelation — spiritual tech startups are drawing more than 70% of their revenue share from younger users (25-35 years).