After the Indian Weddings, if there’s anything else that Indians crazily spend on, is religion and spirituality!
Religion sells. Sells big time! There’s no question about that. It’s a $30 Billion never dying market. In such a scenario, since this largely remains to be an untapped market, it is a no-brainer for entrepreneurs to raid it.
Enter – Shubh Puja!
What is Shubh Puja?
Founded in 2013 by Saumya Vardhan, Shubh Puja is India’s first religious eCommerce platform that makes use of science and technology.
Some of their Vedic offerings include: Vedic Pujas, Astrology, Numerology, Palmistry, and Vastu consultation with the help of highly experienced, educated and qualified professionals.
ASTROLOGY: Different types of Horoscope consultations (love, career, etc), Consult a Pandit, Numerology, Palmistry, Prashna Kundli (Ask a question using a Kundli), Tarot Reading, Varshphal, and so on…
PUJAS: Antim Sanskar Puja, Corporate Puja, Festival Puja, Grah Shanti Puja, Marriage Puja, Navratri Puja, Nazar & Black Magic, Paaths, japs and kathas, Personal occasions Puja, shradh Puja, Sindhur Mani Puja Package, etc…
VASTU: Vastu for business, Vastu for home
PRODUCTS: Chowki, Gemstone, Gifts, Idols, Magnetic, Puja Items, Puja samagri, Rudraksha, Yantra
We live aside so many frauds with false claims, where almost any person can just wake up and become an expert on astrologer/Pandit. You don’t even need to have the relevant educational qualification and experience for it. And nobody ever asks for it too! This result in the gullible devotees being taken for a ride!
In such a scenario – Shubh Puja comes as a much needed platform that compiles of skilled, experienced and knowledgeable pundits and astrologers to offer services at the customer’s convenience.
To overcome this problem, Shubh Puja has tied up with highly qualified Pandits /Astrologers who hold more than ten years of experience, with at least a Masters or PhD from top-most institutes like Varanasi, Nasik, Ujjain, Jagganath Puri etc. Additionally, their credentials are also verified through professors and other highly qualified professionals in the area, as well.
Basically, it is a one-stop shop for all your religious and spiritual needs. Not only do they offer astrological and occult science consultations from highly qualified PhD level astrologers and numerologists, but in addition to that, they also organise religious ceremonies using vedic sciences through very experienced and accomplished vedic acharyas, and also help you with exclusive and specialised festive gift boxes for corporate and independent clients.
Interestingly, this is also one of the only platform that specializes in offering services like customized Puja packages and astrological services, to individuals and corporates who do not have adequate contacts or time to organise pujas themselves.
What is their operating and business model?
Positioned as an eCommerce platform, Shubh Puja works more like a marketplace to fulfil all your religious and spiritual requirements. And it works just like any other eCommerce platform too!
Just like how you buy clothes or electronics through an eCommerce portal, you can also buy various Puja packages that will either be conducted offline, or online.
Depending on the requirement, customer can book a package by buying it online or over the phone. Shubh Puja then connects the customer with the relevant pandit / astrologer, who belong to Benares, Ujjain, Haridwar or other parts of the country.
Although, the offline service is currently available only in Delhi, but you can always use the portal to book a pandit online for sessions.
All you need to do is – book a session and conduct the Puja through Skype! This is the first time, something like this is tried where a Puja is done online, and the users don’t even have to worry about how it is to be done, or what items to use, as the pandit does everything for them.
While Shubh Puja earns a great deal of money from matrimonial and wedding related services, they also offers various Pujas for health problems, career prospects as well as to companies that also includes a package for the start-ups looking for an auspicious beginning.
Shubh Puja makes sure that the religious ceremonies are organized in a hassle-free manner by offering:
- Every Puja that you think of requires a long list of items (Puja samagri), which are usually not located at convenience stores. Arranging for Puja samagri (the items used in the ritual) for working professionals can be a nightmare. To relieve you from the trouble, Shubh Puja gives the option of arranging for the Puja samagri at a reasonable cost.
- Fixed flat rates
- Free muhurat consultation
- Convenient location (Home, office, factory, temple etc.)
To add to all of that and adding more authenticity to the existing brand – Shubh Puja proudly holds the largest network of astrologers, numerologists, vaastu consultants in India, along with tie-ups with some of the biggest religious organisations, educational institutes, highly revered priests from Benaras, Ujjain, Haridwar and other parts of the country, and so on…
Talking about their business / pricing model – Shubh Puja works on a standard product pricing model!
Meaning – the prices are fixed, so priests cannot throw out random figures based on their perception of the wealth of the individual requiring services, as typically happens. Based on the assignment, the professionals get a fee, that too from Shubh Puja and not the user. In fact, they even have some of the pundits on their payroll.
Who leads the brand?
The company was founded by Saumya Vardhan!
Other than her – the company also consists of Harsh Vardhan (Director), Deepak Malik (Advisor – Operations) and Rajesh Patel (Advisor – Technology)
With more than 30 years of experience in setting up multiple international aviation and industrial ventures, Harsh is rated to be among the top-most aviation and management experts in India.
Deepak is the ex-MD– CCIL (Clearing Corporation of India Limited), where he had managed to increase the company’s revenue to ₹3.5 billion by managing infrastructure with assets worth ₹2.5 billion.
Belonging to the tech background, Rajesh (currently the CEO of Powerweave) brings along with him a rich and varied portfolio of experience across IT-enabled services, technology, media & communications, manufacturing and marketing domains, and provides the techno-strategic direction and vision to Shubhpuja.com.
Saumya Vardhan – Founder, Shubhpuja.com
An MBA (with distinction) from Imperial College London, MSc in Operational Research and a University topper in BSc (Hons) Statistics from LSR (Gold medalist) – this girl is indeed a genius!!!
Not only that, but she also has over 10+ years of international consulting, industry and entrepreneurship experience; is said to be excellent in business and financial modelling skills; has prepared financial appraisal, cash flow analysis and valuation models for various start-up projects corporate and private equity clients; and holds deep expertise in specialities like ––– Operations due-diligence, Upside identification, Process Improvement and cost optimisation, Lean sigma enterprise management, Implementing transformation and start-up projects
Beginning her career in 2004 – Saumya has worked with some of the top notch firms including: NHS Gloucestershire Hospitals (Model Developer), LCS International Inc LCSI (Financial Analyst), ThoughtWorks Limited (Business Consultant), Starair Consulting (Principal Consultant), Rolls-Royce (Summer Associate, Strategy and Futures Programmes Group), KPMG Advisory (Assistant Manager, Operations Strategy Group, Transaction Services), and Ernst & Young (Executive, Transaction Advisory Services).
After working at these places for about 10 years, she then decided to do something of her own and founded Shubh Puja in 2013!
To know her business better, Saumya has gone ahead and got trained to be a qualified astrologer as well. Furthermore, she now studying for her diploma in Vastu shastra and numerology, so that she is qualified enough to offer accurate services to our clients.
What is their story?
The year was 2013!
She had just moved back to India. Her friend’s father had passed away. Most of the family lived outside India, and those in India struggled greatly in organizing the rituals that surround the cremation process.
To give you a little context, more than 80% of India’s population is Hindu and most of the traditions that are followed here go back as far as around 500 BC, and play a huge role in our daily lives. Families often contact priests to perform everything from astrological chart readings to different rituals – you name it.
Plus, there’s no pricing schedule and just about nobody checks into the educational background or qualification of the people who deliver these services.
Now, imagine how difficult and elaborate the traditional Hindu 13-day death ceremony actually would have been for them. They had no clue who to consult, and how to go about it?
While at it – she noticed that the money that was being spent in India alone in the form of temple donations, purchase of offerings, spiritual tourism, payments for ritual services, astrology services, etc – easily touched billions of dollars.
As per an article published by Times of India, a couple of years ago – the Indian spiritual and religious market was worth around $40 Billion+.
That was it. This is when she decided that she will start up Shubh Puja. In late 2013!
From start to end – from bringing in the offerings needed for the ceremony, to informing a customer of when they need to log in, what recitations they need to do, and when they should participate with during the ceremonies ––– the priests on-the-ground would handle everything.
The idea was that the Indians across the world, who face issues in performing the Hindu religious rituals, would use this site to consult experts through Skype or Facetime and accordingly perform the task.
There are so many scams and scandals with spirituality, and she just wanted to fix this loophole and wanted to make people aware of the science and facts behind these rituals.
The biggest challenge at that time was to get access to highly qualified PhD level candidates (who follow scientific and vedic procedures as described in the Vedas) and make them available to people for consultation, changing people’s mindset in terms of booking and paying online for such services, awareness of the existence of qualified vedic, highly educated astrologers and pundits, etc..
She began by first identifying the religious needs of the market, then moved on to understanding the consumer behaviour in this industry, and where the gap was. She also got the opportunity to meet numerous experienced pundits and astrologers from different backgrounds and practices, who taught her our base i.e. Vedas!
In fact, later she also joined a yearlong advanced Vedic astrology professional course that was started by a legendary astrologer of modern times Shri. K.N.Rao.
The company was started with her own personal savings, and the idea turned out to be so good that Shubh Puja managed to start making profits from the fourth month of operations itself.
By doing so, she also wanted to create some guidance and structure in the practice, Saumya is also trying to make it easier for the next generation to keep up with the old traditions, who otherwise, five years from now will have no idea.
Over the period of time, Shubh Puja, that launched in December 2013 and catered to over 100 clients in a month and had 90+ pundits / astrologers / Vaastu consultants in Delhi from the occult science institutes in India (Varanasi, Nasik, Ujjain, Delhi, etc), has grown on to have conducted more than 6,000 pujas by 2016.
Additionally, they have also seen to be participating in various exhibitions, holiday carnivals and festivals for Diwali, New Year, Valentine’s Day, etc., and also conduct workshops on astrology, Vaastu Shastra and numerology for big groups of people or corporates, too.
As a matter of fact, in a matter of just a couple of years, Shubh Puja has established itself as an international brand offering exclusive worldwide services.
Apart from India, the company has also been getting excellent responses from our overseas clients from Russia, the US, Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK.
More recently, the company had participated in a six-week programme for 15 entrepreneurs chosen from among 181 applicants, based on innovation, their business model and the founding team’s expertise, wherein the top three winners would be awarded with prize money.
This is being conducted by a Zone Start-ups India accelerator for women entrepreneurs – empoWer, and will be offering equity-free seed funding in association with GIZ, Vodafone India, Google, Nishith Desai Associates, and SheEO, Zone Startups India is hosting this..
Going ahead – they wish to transform Shubhpuja.com and make it equivalent to Shaadi.com in religion eCommerce market. They will also be raising more money, for steady, stable and fast growth.
After the Indian Weddings, if there’s anything else that Indians crazily spend on, is religion and spirituality!
Religion sells. Sells big time! There’s no question about that. It’s a $30 Billion never dying market. In such a scenario, since this largely remains to be an untapped market, it is a no-brainer for entrepreneurs to raid it.
Enter – Shubh Puja!
What is Shubh Puja?
Founded in 2013 by Saumya Vardhan, Shubh Puja is India’s first religious eCommerce platform that makes use of science and technology.
Some of their Vedic offerings include: Vedic Pujas, Astrology, Numerology, Palmistry, and Vastu consultation with the help of highly experienced, educated and qualified professionals.
ASTROLOGY: Different types of Horoscope consultations (love, career, etc), Consult a Pandit, Numerology, Palmistry, Prashna Kundli (Ask a question using a Kundli), Tarot Reading, Varshphal, and so on…
PUJAS: Antim Sanskar Puja, Corporate Puja, Festival Puja, Grah Shanti Puja, Marriage Puja, Navratri Puja, Nazar & Black Magic, Paaths, japs and kathas, Personal occasions Puja, shradh Puja, Sindhur Mani Puja Package, etc…
VASTU: Vastu for business, Vastu for home
PRODUCTS: Chowki, Gemstone, Gifts, Idols, Magnetic, Puja Items, Puja samagri, Rudraksha, Yantra
We live aside so many frauds with false claims, where almost any person can just wake up and become an expert on astrologer/Pandit. You don’t even need to have the relevant educational qualification and experience for it. And nobody ever asks for it too! This result in the gullible devotees being taken for a ride!
In such a scenario – Shubh Puja comes as a much needed platform that compiles of skilled, experienced and knowledgeable pundits and astrologers to offer services at the customer’s convenience.
To overcome this problem, Shubh Puja has tied up with highly qualified Pandits /Astrologers who hold more than ten years of experience, with at least a Masters or PhD from top-most institutes like Varanasi, Nasik, Ujjain, Jagganath Puri etc. Additionally, their credentials are also verified through professors and other highly qualified professionals in the area, as well.
Basically, it is a one-stop shop for all your religious and spiritual needs. Not only do they offer astrological and occult science consultations from highly qualified PhD level astrologers and numerologists, but in addition to that, they also organise religious ceremonies using vedic sciences through very experienced and accomplished vedic acharyas, and also help you with exclusive and specialised festive gift boxes for corporate and independent clients.
Interestingly, this is also one of the only platform that specializes in offering services like customized Puja packages and astrological services, to individuals and corporates who do not have adequate contacts or time to organise pujas themselves.
What is their operating and business model?
Positioned as an eCommerce platform, Shubh Puja works more like a marketplace to fulfil all your religious and spiritual requirements. And it works just like any other eCommerce platform too!
Just like how you buy clothes or electronics through an eCommerce portal, you can also buy various Puja packages that will either be conducted offline, or online.
Depending on the requirement, customer can book a package by buying it online or over the phone. Shubh Puja then connects the customer with the relevant pandit / astrologer, who belong to Benares, Ujjain, Haridwar or other parts of the country.
Although, the offline service is currently available only in Delhi, but you can always use the portal to book a pandit online for sessions.
All you need to do is – book a session and conduct the Puja through Skype! This is the first time, something like this is tried where a Puja is done online, and the users don’t even have to worry about how it is to be done, or what items to use, as the pandit does everything for them.
While Shubh Puja earns a great deal of money from matrimonial and wedding related services, they also offers various Pujas for health problems, career prospects as well as to companies that also includes a package for the start-ups looking for an auspicious beginning.
Shubh Puja makes sure that the religious ceremonies are organized in a hassle-free manner by offering:
- Every Puja that you think of requires a long list of items (Puja samagri), which are usually not located at convenience stores. Arranging for Puja samagri (the items used in the ritual) for working professionals can be a nightmare. To relieve you from the trouble, Shubh Puja gives the option of arranging for the Puja samagri at a reasonable cost.
- Fixed flat rates
- Free muhurat consultation
- Convenient location (Home, office, factory, temple etc.)
To add to all of that and adding more authenticity to the existing brand – Shubh Puja proudly holds the largest network of astrologers, numerologists, vaastu consultants in India, along with tie-ups with some of the biggest religious organisations, educational institutes, highly revered priests from Benaras, Ujjain, Haridwar and other parts of the country, and so on…
Talking about their business / pricing model – Shubh Puja works on a standard product pricing model!
Meaning – the prices are fixed, so priests cannot throw out random figures based on their perception of the wealth of the individual requiring services, as typically happens. Based on the assignment, the professionals get a fee, that too from Shubh Puja and not the user. In fact, they even have some of the pundits on their payroll.
Who leads the brand?
The company was founded by Saumya Vardhan!
Other than her – the company also consists of Harsh Vardhan (Director), Deepak Malik (Advisor – Operations) and Rajesh Patel (Advisor – Technology)
With more than 30 years of experience in setting up multiple international aviation and industrial ventures, Harsh is rated to be among the top-most aviation and management experts in India.
Deepak is the ex-MD– CCIL (Clearing Corporation of India Limited), where he had managed to increase the company’s revenue to ₹3.5 billion by managing infrastructure with assets worth ₹2.5 billion.
Belonging to the tech background, Rajesh (currently the CEO of Powerweave) brings along with him a rich and varied portfolio of experience across IT-enabled services, technology, media & communications, manufacturing and marketing domains, and provides the techno-strategic direction and vision to Shubhpuja.com.
Saumya Vardhan – Founder, Shubhpuja.com
An MBA (with distinction) from Imperial College London, MSc in Operational Research and a University topper in BSc (Hons) Statistics from LSR (Gold medalist) – this girl is indeed a genius!!!
Not only that, but she also has over 10+ years of international consulting, industry and entrepreneurship experience; is said to be excellent in business and financial modelling skills; has prepared financial appraisal, cash flow analysis and valuation models for various start-up projects corporate and private equity clients; and holds deep expertise in specialities like ––– Operations due-diligence, Upside identification, Process Improvement and cost optimisation, Lean sigma enterprise management, Implementing transformation and start-up projects
Beginning her career in 2004 – Saumya has worked with some of the top notch firms including: NHS Gloucestershire Hospitals (Model Developer), LCS International Inc LCSI (Financial Analyst), ThoughtWorks Limited (Business Consultant), Starair Consulting (Principal Consultant), Rolls-Royce (Summer Associate, Strategy and Futures Programmes Group), KPMG Advisory (Assistant Manager, Operations Strategy Group, Transaction Services), and Ernst & Young (Executive, Transaction Advisory Services).
After working at these places for about 10 years, she then decided to do something of her own and founded Shubh Puja in 2013!
To know her business better, Saumya has gone ahead and got trained to be a qualified astrologer as well. Furthermore, she now studying for her diploma in Vastu shastra and numerology, so that she is qualified enough to offer accurate services to our clients.
What is their story?
The year was 2013!
She had just moved back to India. Her friend’s father had passed away. Most of the family lived outside India, and those in India struggled greatly in organizing the rituals that surround the cremation process.
To give you a little context, more than 80% of India’s population is Hindu and most of the traditions that are followed here go back as far as around 500 BC, and play a huge role in our daily lives. Families often contact priests to perform everything from astrological chart readings to different rituals – you name it.
Plus, there’s no pricing schedule and just about nobody checks into the educational background or qualification of the people who deliver these services.
Now, imagine how difficult and elaborate the traditional Hindu 13-day death ceremony actually would have been for them. They had no clue who to consult, and how to go about it?
While at it – she noticed that the money that was being spent in India alone in the form of temple donations, purchase of offerings, spiritual tourism, payments for ritual services, astrology services, etc – easily touched billions of dollars.
As per an article published by Times of India, a couple of years ago – the Indian spiritual and religious market was worth around $40 Billion+.
That was it. This is when she decided that she will start up Shubh Puja. In late 2013!
From start to end – from bringing in the offerings needed for the ceremony, to informing a customer of when they need to log in, what recitations they need to do, and when they should participate with during the ceremonies ––– the priests on-the-ground would handle everything.
The idea was that the Indians across the world, who face issues in performing the Hindu religious rituals, would use this site to consult experts through Skype or Facetime and accordingly perform the task.
There are so many scams and scandals with spirituality, and she just wanted to fix this loophole and wanted to make people aware of the science and facts behind these rituals.
The biggest challenge at that time was to get access to highly qualified PhD level candidates (who follow scientific and vedic procedures as described in the Vedas) and make them available to people for consultation, changing people’s mindset in terms of booking and paying online for such services, awareness of the existence of qualified vedic, highly educated astrologers and pundits, etc..
She began by first identifying the religious needs of the market, then moved on to understanding the consumer behaviour in this industry, and where the gap was. She also got the opportunity to meet numerous experienced pundits and astrologers from different backgrounds and practices, who taught her our base i.e. Vedas!
In fact, later she also joined a yearlong advanced Vedic astrology professional course that was started by a legendary astrologer of modern times Shri. K.N.Rao.
The company was started with her own personal savings, and the idea turned out to be so good that Shubh Puja managed to start making profits from the fourth month of operations itself.
By doing so, she also wanted to create some guidance and structure in the practice, Saumya is also trying to make it easier for the next generation to keep up with the old traditions, who otherwise, five years from now will have no idea.
Over the period of time, Shubh Puja, that launched in December 2013 and catered to over 100 clients in a month and had 90+ pundits / astrologers / Vaastu consultants in Delhi from the occult science institutes in India (Varanasi, Nasik, Ujjain, Delhi, etc), has grown on to have conducted more than 6,000 pujas by 2016.
Additionally, they have also seen to be participating in various exhibitions, holiday carnivals and festivals for Diwali, New Year, Valentine’s Day, etc., and also conduct workshops on astrology, Vaastu Shastra and numerology for big groups of people or corporates, too.
As a matter of fact, in a matter of just a couple of years, Shubh Puja has established itself as an international brand offering exclusive worldwide services.
Apart from India, the company has also been getting excellent responses from our overseas clients from Russia, the US, Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK.
More recently, the company had participated in a six-week programme for 15 entrepreneurs chosen from among 181 applicants, based on innovation, their business model and the founding team’s expertise, wherein the top three winners would be awarded with prize money.
This is being conducted by a Zone Start-ups India accelerator for women entrepreneurs – empoWer, and will be offering equity-free seed funding in association with GIZ, Vodafone India, Google, Nishith Desai Associates, and SheEO, Zone Startups India is hosting this..
Going ahead – they wish to transform Shubhpuja.com and make it equivalent to Shaadi.com in religion eCommerce market. They will also be raising more money, for steady, stable and fast growth.
