My Tirth India, a spiritual tech startup, announced on Monday that it is shutting down operations due to financial crisis.
This news is surprising as spiritual technology has emerged as one of the most in-demand fields. In the past 15 months, more than a dozen startups in the spiritual technology space have raised more than $40 million.
My Tirth India is a pilgrimage and darshan site that brings together temples, priests, hotels, travel agents, astrologers, ayurveda and yoga on one platform to enable tours to major religious centers in India.

“We have tried to create as many jobs as possible in cities, villages and towns and encourage people to rediscover their culture, tradition and heritage. But it is quite sad that we have to close our office due to lack of funds due to the unfortunate death of our major shareholder and mentor,” said Indraneel Dasgupta, Co-Founder and CEO, My Tirth India.

According to My Tirth India, around $1 million was raised from the late Subrata Roy, who was a major shareholder and advisor to the company. Roy was the founder and managing director of Sahara India Parivar. Currently, singer Anup Jalota is the chief advisor of My Tirth India.

Founded in 2019, the organization has launched spiritual membership programs for travelers, spiritual showrooms in cities like Lucknow, Varanasi, Kolkata, Noida and marketing of spiritual products like agarbati, incense, pooja material, haven material and idol. According to industry reports, the Indian travel industry accounts for 10% of the country's GDP. Of this, spiritual tourism contributes 65% to 70% of the total volume.

Astro and spiritual tech startups have raised more than $40 million in the past 15 months, according to data compiled by TheKredible. Notable names like Ustav App, Devdham, InstaAstro, AstroTalk, Wama and Meluha have also raised decent funding during this period. Srimandir's parent company, AppsForBharat, is in talks to raise $15 million in a new round.