Astrotalk founder Puneet Gupta did not believe in astrology till just 10 years ago. He believed that when no one knows about the future then what can an astrologer do and what will he tell. Astrotalk became profitable in FY 2020. The company is the first tech platform for online business of astrology and now it is thinking of expanding in the international market. In FY 2023, Puneet Gupta’s Astrotalk generated revenue of Rs 282 crore while it made a profit of Rs 27 crore.
Compared to last year, Astro Talk’s profit has increased almost four times. The company’s target is to reach its revenue to Rs 2000 crore by the year 2025-26. It is true that no one can see the future, yet millions of Indians go to prophets or astrologers and want information about their future.
At a time when startups are continuously incurring losses, Puneet Gupta’s Astrotalk has come up with a brilliant business model. Puneet Gupta, Founder and CEO of Astro Talk, himself did not believe in astrology earlier. In 2014, when he was fired from his job, he went to an astrologer, worried about his career.
From here he got a lot of support and he got the idea of starting Astro Talk. After the struggle of the last few years, Astro Talk started earning profits in the year 2020.
Puneet Gupta said that once Puneet Gupta’s car broke down on the way and he reached the nearby Jaguar showroom to buy a new car. The salesman asked him, brother, which car do you have now? He said that I have Hyundai i10, then the salesman was very disappointed and said that see there is a lot of waiting on this luxury car and you will have to wait.
Then Puneet Gupta asked which car is available with you right now which can be delivered to me immediately. The salesman showed the Range Rover to Puneet Gupta and asked how much was the loan? Puneet Gupta asked whether Range Rover is available in white color?
The salesman replied that yes. After this Puneet Gupta asked whether its delivery will be available immediately? The salesman asked how much loan he had to take, Puneet Gupta said that he did not want to take a loan and he bought the Range Rover and returned home.
Puneet Gupta cleared IIT JEE in the year 2007. Till that time he had no idea of worldly matters. At that time he was told that engineering means computer science or electronics. Along with this, he was also told that there was no job in the engineering field till the year 2011, at that time that was the only source of information he had. Puneet Gupta wanted to do engineering to get a job. He did not get Computer Science or Electronics in any IIT, so he joined PCE.
Once he completed engineering he was told that he had made the biggest mistake of his life. Now he should do MBA. Puneet Gupta said that he had no interest in MBA but he cleared CAT exam and got excellent percentile in it. After this he started working.
Puneet Gupta faced some business difficulties during the Corona lockdown. Astro Talk’s revenue had fallen by 10 percent during this time, but after that it continued to grow at the rate of 10 percent on a monthly basis. The daily revenue of Astro Talk increased from Rs 14 lakh daily to Rs 19 lakh daily in just 6 months. Now it has reached Rs 30 lakh daily. Astro Talk is expected to reach a revenue of Rs 600 crore by the end of this financial year, Whereas it feels that with 16 percent EBITDA margin, its profit can reach Rs 100 crore in the current financial year.
Astro Talk has created an astrology platform by involving many professionals. 90 percent of Astro Talk’s revenue comes from one-to-one consultations with astrologers. Here the user has to pay per minute fee to talk to the astrologer. Five percent of Astro Talk’s revenue comes from live streaming fees where astrologers answer various user questions. The rest of Astro Talk’s revenue comes from the e-commerce vertical which includes ad revenue and sale of ritual and puja products. Astro Talk is a Delhi-based company established in the year 2017 which has received funding of $8,00,000 so far. By October 2023, there are more than 15,000 astrologers present on Astro Talk while the number of subscribers had crossed 3 crore. Competitors to Astro Talk include platforms like Astro Sage, Astro Yogi and Astro Buddy.
So, this is the story of AstroTalk founder Puneet Gupta. Share and read more success stories on this website.