Astrotalk, a Noida-based startup which provides astrology consulting services, is set to raise $20 million in its first institutional funding round from New York-based venture capital firm Left Lane Capital, according to ETtech report.
The company will utilise the funds to expand its services geographically, focusing on south India, which presents a large market opportunity for Astrotalk’s services, cofounder Anmol Jain told ET.
The firm is also looking at acquisitions to grow inorganically in adjacent categories like devotion, where it is looking to buy companies providing tech as well as physical products. Astrotalk is also looking at making some acquisitions internationally from the fundraise proceeds.
“Our penetration is lower in southern cities because our brand is focussed on north India, with astrologers primarily speaking in Hindi. But now we have started getting astrologers speaking in regional languages like Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi and Bengali. We’ve also started making ads in regional languages to cater to the south Indian population,” said Jain, highlighting that the population in south India is more astrology-oriented than in the north.
The company is also expanding internationally with 20% of revenue coming from overseas markets. Astrotalk operates on a revenue-sharing model with the more than 10,000 active astrologers on its platform. Its pricing structure ranges from Rs 10 to Rs 200 per minute, averaging around Rs 20-25. The company spends heavily on marketing and user acquisition, Jain said.
According to Jain, the company handles a monthly volume of 30 lakh sessions, with the bulk of these being marriage-related consultations.
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