CXO of the week: Manu Jain, Co-Founder, VAMA

VAMA is a one-stop virtual platform that provides easy access to an array of services for one’s religious/spiritual journey. For devotees & customers from all over the world, the platform offers virtual puja remedies in temples. Through purna puja offerings, astrology services, and remedies, VAMA aims to provide a divine and fulfilling spiritual experience for its users.

Based on the extensive knowledge and experience of its experts, VAMA offers solutions tailored to the needs of clients. It aspires to be a reliable and trustworthy partner ensuring that its users feel safe, understood, and connected at all times.

Recently we have engaged in an interview with Manu Jain, Co-Founder, VAMA . He talks about the startup journey and what VAMA has been up to.

Introduction.

Established by Manu Jain, Himanshu Semwal and Acharya Dev in late 2020, VAMA is a one-stop virtual platform that provides easy access to an array of services for one’s religious/spiritual journey. For devotees & customers from all over the world, the platform offers virtual puja remedies in temples. Through purna puja offerings, astrology services, and remedies, VAMA aims to provide a divine and fulfilling spiritual experience for its users. Additionally, it has over 300 experienced astrologers and other spiritual experts onboard who offer genuine and customized consultations as well as best-in-class remedies, to the users of the platform. Based on the extensive knowledge and experience of its experts, VAMA offers solutions tailored to the needs of clients. It aspires to be a reliable and trustworthy partner ensuring that its users feel safe, understood, and connected at all times.

How has Covid-19 accelerated the transition to digital for the telecom industry? What will be the new normal in the industry?

The telecom sector has also been impacted by the shift in customer behaviour brought on by COVID-19. Due to further development in the OTT and gaming industries, there has been a significant increase in the amount of data consumed across various networks. Secondly, the lockdown's implementation had an influence on sachet recharges on the voice side. One of the main dark horses to emerge in the sector is data and service bundling.

What, as per you, are the five important things that VAMA should be looking at today?

VAMA is an early-stage startup that has been successful in attracting new talent and is currently expanding its workforce. VAMA's app is currently available on Android devices and has witnessed 500K+ downloads on the google play store. We are driving:

1. Lower CAC to acquire users at a lower cost
2. Repeat Rate - One key metric is customers' retention and their repeat transactions on the platform
3. Paying percentage - Customers using our platform compared to the percentage of them making a purchase is a unique metric that we track
4. Our services are focused on expanding video consumption, so we are closely monitoring the growth of video adoption in India
5. A significant portion of our potential consumers are first-time Internet users in the 50+ age group

How can seed start-ups (financially restricted) overcome the challenges faced while adopting technology into their business?

Young start-ups like ours have benefited from the balancing effects of technology, which has enabled us to develop and control costs. Hardware setup was one of our major initial costs, but now that cloud storage has been widely used, many businesses have benefited.

What changes is VAMA bringing to the industry?

We realised there was a need to organise the faith-tech segment and deliver 360-degree virtual spiritual solutions to devotees on a single platform. Prior to VAMA, some devotees used to receive e-puja services via WhatsApp video calls that were not well-organized or followed a strict set of rules and regulations. With VAMA, one can now do any puja of their choice in any of the registered temples with complete transparency and proper guidelines. With the number of physical visits to temples slowly declining over the recent years and more devotees shifting to the online medium, VAMA aims to capitalise on the 100x growth potential of virtual footfalls. At VAMA, we are developing a Faith-tech platform with spirituality at its heart. The emphasis is on converting the offline Mandir ecosystem to digital via content-driven products that are engaging, empowering, and habit-forming.

What are your growth priorities for 2022 and any future plans?

Since the debut of our consumer app in September 2021, we have witnessed an increase of 100,000 active monthly users. Our services, such as E-pujas and E-darshans, began in January 2022 and are rapidly expanding and doubling month on month. We plan to introduce live-streaming of 'darshan' and 'aartis’ as well as the option for users to make online donations towards temples. We also plan to broaden our services this year by collaborating with over 100 temples & venturing into international markets such as the Middle East, USA, and Canada. Our app which is currently available on Android devices will also be available on iOS devices soon. The platform has so far enabled over 50,000+ online consultations and are growing 100% month on month. Additionally, earlier this year we onboarded Kashi Vishwanath Temple and Shree Mangalnath Temple on our platform and plan to get 200 Temples on-boarded shortly. We are a team of 25+ people and are looking to double our headcount during this financial year.In terms of services, we are extremely excited about launching new product lines and services like Virtual Gau Seva on the platform.