Spiritual startup My Tirth India shuts down ops due to lack of funds

Spiritual tech startup My Tirth India announced on Monday that it is shutting down operations due to a funding crisis. This news comes as a surprise, given that spiritual tech has emerged as one of the hottest sectors, even though the funding environment has been tight for others.

In the past 15 months, over a dozen startups in the spiritual tech space have mopped up more than $40 million.

My Tirth India is a pilgrimage and darshan site which used to enable tours to India's top religious destinations by bringing temples, priests, hotels, travel agents, astrologers, ayurveda, and yoga to one platform.

“..we have tried to generate as much employment as possible across cities, villages and towns encouraging people to rediscover their culture, traditions and heritage. But it's with utter sadness that we finally have to shut down the office due to the lack of funds after the unfortunate demise of our principal shareholder and mentor,” said Indraneel Dasgupta, co-founder and CEO of My Tirth India.

According to My Tirth India, it raised nearly $1 million from the late Subrata Roy who was the company’s principal shareholder and mentor. Roy was the founder and managing director of Sahara India Pariwar. Currently, singer Anup Jalota is My Tirth India’s chief mentor.

Founded in 2019, the firm also launched spiritual membership programmes for travelers, and spiritual showrooms in cities like Lucknow, Varanasi, Kolkata, Noida, and spiritual products like agarbatti, dhoop, puja samagri, havan samagri, and idol, among others.

According to industry reports, the Indian travel industry accounts for 10% of the country's GDP. About 65% to 70% of the entire volume is contributed by spiritual tourism.

As per data compiled by TheKredible, astro and spiritual tech startups have rmore than $40 million in the past 15 months. The notable names include Ustav App, DevDham, InstaAstro, AstroTalk, Vama, and Melooha also raised decent funding during the period. SriMandir’s parent company AppsForBharat is also in talks to raise $15 million in a new round. Entrackr exclusively reported the development in May.