MUMBAI/BANGALORE, June 24, 2013: An investment arm of serial technology entrepreneurs, K Ganesh and Meena Ganesh, is backing an internet startup that delivers 'prasad' and religious merchandise from temples across India to people's doorsteps. One of the most storied home grown entrepreneur duo has acquired a 35% stake in the year-old venture Online Prasad, founded by former Bain & Co analyst Goonjan Mall.

The pedigree investors are backing the venture hoping to tap the growing online religious spends among Indians which crossed the $1-billion mark last year, backed by pilgrimage travels and donations made to famous shrines. Bangalore-based Online Prasad leverages the internet and technology to offer puja at temples, as a burgeoning Indian middle class takes recourse to digital platforms to express its religious sentiments.

"India's religious market is a huge white space which is migrating to the internet with the changing pace of social lives," K Ganesh told TOI. He along with wife Meena, India's best-known entrepreneur couple, have earlier sold a slew of startups, including TutorVista, Marketics Technologies and Customer Asset, to acquirers like UK's Pearson, WNS and ICICI.

Source: The Times of India, DT. June 24, 2013.