Spiritual Tech Startup My Tirth India Shuts Down Amid Funding Crisis

Spiritual tech startup My Tirth India has announced it is ceasing operations due to a financial crisis. The decision, revealed in a LinkedIn post on Monday, comes as a surprise given the rapid growth of the spiritual tech sector, which has attracted over $40 million in funding for more than a dozen startups in the past 15 months.

Founder and CEO Indraneel Dasgupta stated that the shutdown follows a funding shortfall caused by the death of the company’s primary investor and mentor, Subrata Roy, the founder of Sahara India Pariwar. While operations for new projects have been halted, the startup reassured its franchisees, customers, and staff that existing offices would continue to provide assistance and services.

My Tirth India, established in 2019, was developed as an all-in-one platform for spiritual tourism, offering access to major religious destinations across India. The platform combined services such as astrologers, travel agencies, temples, hotels, yoga, priests, and Ayurveda to make pilgrimages and spiritual journeys more accessible. It also introduced spiritual membership programs and set up spiritual showrooms in cities like Noida, Kolkata, Varanasi, and Lucknow, providing products like dhoop, puja items, incense sticks, and other spiritual essentials.

The startup aimed to boost employment across cities, towns, and villages, helping people reconnect with their culture and heritage. However, the recent passing of Subrata Roy, the company’s principal investor and mentor, led to a severe financial crunch. “Without our principal shareholder and mentor, we now lack the funds to continue, and we are forced to stop operations,” said Indraneel Dasgupta, Co-founder and CEO of My Tirth India. The company had raised nearly $1 million from Roy, the founder of Sahara India Pariwar, who had been a key supporter.

The company’s financial difficulties have drastically reduced its workforce from 50 to just 10 employees working without pay and from their homes. Dasgupta mentioned that operations have been reduced to a bare minimum, and without new investments, the company cannot continue. “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,” he added.

Despite suspending new operations, My Tirth India assured its franchisees, customers, and staff that its existing offices would remain open for assistance. The company is committed to resuming full operations if fresh funding is secured. The startup’s current chief mentor is singer Anup Jalota, who continues to support its vision of providing a one-stop platform for spiritual journeys across India.

The spiritual tourism sector is a large component of India’s travel industry, contributing around 65% to 70% of the total volume and accounting for 10% of the country’s GDP. The demand for spiritual experiences has led to investments in the sector, with Astro and spiritual tech startups raising over $40 million in the past 15 months, according to data from TheKredible. 

My Tirth India, headquartered in Mumbai, also offered distinctive services, such as booking priests for religious ceremonies, arranging yoga sessions, and providing astrological consultations. The startup emerged during the Narendra Modi government’s efforts to promote spiritual tourism across India, a sector hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and is slowly recovering. 

The recent World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Development Index 2024 noted a decline in India’s ranking to 39th place, down ten spots from 2019. Despite this, the government has allocated Rs 2,479 crore for tourism in the financial year 2024-25. 

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