According to founder and chief executive Indraneel Dasgupta, the company is struggling with a funding shortage following the demise of its principal shareholder and mentor Subrata Roy, the founder of Sahara India Pariwar.
“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,” Dasgupta said in a statement.
Founded in 2018, the Mumbai-based company is a pilgrimage and darshan site offering a one-stop portal to travel around India’s religious destinations. In addition to offering tailored travel packages for devotees, it also provides a range of online services, such as online prasad and puja facilities, astrological and ayurvedic consultations, and funeral services.
“As things stand now, we are unable to proceed any further, running with a skeletal staff who are working without pay, having no office, and working out of our homes. We now have no choice but to stop operations as we have no funds to continue,” Dasgupta added.
My Tirth India is the latest to join the growing list of startups that have shut operations. Insurtech startup Kenko Health, upskilling and job finding platform Bluelearn, homegrown social media app Koo, artificial intelligence-led software startup Nintee, Accel and Alpha Wave-backed fashion startups Fashinza and Virgio have shut down operations over the last few months.
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However, India’s burgeoning segment of religious and spiritual apps has attracted significant investment from firms like Peak XV Partners, Elevation Capital, Titan Capital and India Quotient in recent years. Key players in this space include Vama.app, Astrotalk, AppsForBharat, DevDham and Utsav.On June 7, digital astrology platform Astrotalk raised $9.4 million from New York-based Left Lane Capital and Elev8 Venture Partners.
On July 7, ET reported that a post-pandemic surge in online engagement and a growing interest in spiritual practices in recent times have revived the fortunes of apps offering spiritual and devotional services.
The inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya had also led to a surge in the use of devotional apps, with some industry experts comparing this trend to the rapid growth in digital payment apps like Paytm following the demonetisation of high-value currency in 2016.