We started in Durga puja, during the pandemic. Being Bengalis, we missed the essence of Durga puja. We came forward to talk to more than 300 community members who organise the entire celebrations. We realised the need of a platform like Utsav. We built and launched it in 30 days. Almost all the notable puja communities joined Utsav to participate in the festivities virtually.  The app got listed in the trending section of google play store with more than 8000 downloads in a few days with no budget invested for marketing. 

Q 2. What made you start working on Utsav and executing this idea?

In our families, we have witnessed this problem of accessibility to fulfil their spiritual aspirations and they do not know where they can reach out to get regular updates and content. The religious & spiritual market has been traditionally unorganised, fragmented and largely left out by the digital revolution in the country. The love and support of our users motivated us to work further. Since then, we have worked closely with thousands of communities, spiritual influencers, places of worship and understood their problems.

Q 3. When did you realize the need to raise Venture Capital - Seed funding?

For a startup in the B2C space, building communities and the right networks requires an initial investment to keep growing. We realised it last year when we started pitching to investors for the first time. 

Q 4. How has 100X helped you at the beginning of your journey?

With more than 100 hours of mentoring, training, exciting masterclasses, meeting founders from all across the world is what 100X exposed us from Day 1. They have been connecting us with the right set of people to guide us in the journey and scale up! 100X is truly, mentoring unlimited. 

Q 5. Has your startup pivoted? If so, What has the pivot been?

Yes, we have pivoted with adding a commerce angle to the community approach in the Spiritual Tech Domain to empower the communities better. 

Q 6. What challenges did you face & how did you overcome them?

Some key challenges we faced are:

• Bringing a Revolution in the Faith Tech Space is challenging but we always aim to talk to the right people who understand that this is the new era of digitization.
• Raising our Next Round 
• Being First Time Founders 

Q 7. What stage is your startup at present?

• 85000+ downloads for Android App
• 550K Traffic on Website 

• 2000+ communities onboarded including famous temples of India like Puri Jagannath Temple.

• 2500+ Spiritual Offerings Booked worth 20Lacs+ in 5 months.

We are looking to raise our Seed Round at the moment.

Q 8. As founders, what are your goals for the next 1-2 years?

• Expand our Team
• Enhance Product Features (Some really interesting ones coming up!)
• Scale Up our Operations across all states of India and Abroad as well! 

Q 9. What keeps you motivated & keeps you going?

The zeal to not give up, the metrics we are achieving everyday, business growth and the love from the users.

Q 10. Your message for Startup founders building in this sector?

Bringing a change is always challenging. Accept the challenge and keep working for it. Focussed vision towards the goal can do wonders, truly. Everything else will keep falling in place is what I believe.

About Ankita

Ankita is an Engineer from IEM Kolkata, Passionate, Creator and a Leader. She has been amongst the top 10 winning teams in Code 19 Hackathon, a 72 hour Hackathon by The Silicon Valley based Motwani Jadeja Foundation to find solutions to India’s challenges against the Coronavirus outbreak. Other Notable achievements include Vice Chair and Ex-President at IEM Entrepreneurship Cell Kolkata.