The author has posted comments on this articleAnshul Dhamija, TNN | Oct 14, 2014, 07.17AM IST BANGALORE: Top technocrats and businessmen are betting their bucks on spirituality, as the $4 billion unorganized market comprising of myriad religious products, services, and offerings makes headway through internet commerce. Former Microsoft India Development Center MD Srini Koppulu, ex-CEO and cofounder of Sify.com R Ramaraj, Suresh Productions CEO and Hyderabad Angels vice chairman Suresh Babu and founder of Computer Age Management Services V Shankar are among are among 20 investors participating in an early round of investment into OnlinePrasad. <\/p>\n
Bangalore-based onlineprasad.com is a niche e-tailer that is networked to 50 temples in India, and uses the mobile and web platforms to deliver religious offerings such as prasad and other products to one's doorstep. <\/p>\n
The fund raise, which was oversubscribed, was structured through Hyderabad Angels along with participation from The Chennai Angels, two prominent angel networks in south India. Niraj Mital from Hyderabad Angels would be joining OnlinePrasad's board representing the larger investor group.<\/p>\n
\"There are a number of revenue possibilities in this space (spirituality) and the opportunities are big (for online),\" said R Ramaraj, whose last venture was Sify, was the first Indian Internet company from India to list on NASDAQ. <\/p>\n
Eighteen-month old OnlinePrasad started by 26-year old Goonjan Mall has been seed funded by the storied entrepreneur duo K Ganesh and Meena Ganesh and The Morpheus, a startup accelerator step by Nandini Hiranniah and Sameer Guglani. <\/p>\n
Mall, who didn't wish to disclose the fund raise figures, said that the company would be using the fresh capital to scale up its front end and back end operations. In the next 12 months OnlinePrasad plans to grow its head count from 12 to 50 and double its temple network to 100. <\/p>\n
Mall also said that plans were afoot to add around 10 new product categories, some which would include at-home astrology and pundit services. <\/p>\n
\"Though it's a niche ecommerce play , there has been a certain trust and belief that has been built around the business,\" said Sasidhar Nandigam, director at Hyderabad Angels. <\/p>\n
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Top HNIs back spiritual e-tailer OnlinePrasad<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The author has posted comments on this articleAnshul Dhamija, TNN | Oct 14, 2014, 07.17AM IST BANGALORE: Top technocrats and businessmen are betting their bucks on spirituality, as the $4 billion unorganized market comprising of myriad religious products, services, and offerings makes headway through internet commerce. Former Microsoft India Development Center MD Srini Koppulu, ex-CEO and cofounder of Sify.com R Ramaraj, Suresh Productions CEO and Hyderabad Angels vice chairman Suresh Babu and founder of Computer Age Management Services V Shankar are among are among 20 investors participating in an early round of investment into OnlinePrasad. Bangalore-based onlineprasad.com is a niche e-tailer that is networked to 50 temples in India, and uses the mobile and web platforms to deliver religious offerings such as prasad and other products to one's doorstep. Continue reading