Astrotalk to raise $20 million from Left Lane Capital

Noida-based startup Astrotalk, 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.
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.

The funding round values the company at around $200 million pre-money. Astrotalk’s board has approved a special resolution to issue 11,211 shares to Left Lane Capital, aggregating to around $20 million.

In October last year, ET had reported that the company was in talks to raise funds that will value it in the range of $200 million to $250 million.

The company is targeting a revenue of Rs 620-630 crore with a profit of Rs 120 crore in the ongoing fiscal, compared to Rs 283 crore clocked in FY23. It posted a net profit of Rs 27 crore during the year. “The market is growing, our company is growing, but I think we have barely scratched the surface,” Jain said.

“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.

The company has also expanded its services to include e-puja, entering a competitive field with other players like Vama, Utsav, and DevDham (formerly DevDarshan). According to Jain, e-puja is at a nascent stage and will contribute to around 20% of the overall revenue.