Can Astrotalk Chart A Future Beyond Astrology?

Astrotalk pulled off something unique this week. It became India’s 133rd unicorn but in the process, it didn’t raise any new funds or see any new investors join the cap table.

In fact, the $1 Bn valuation came out of an ESOP buyback after the company bought shares back from its employees. That resulted in some wealth creation for the employees who held those shares, and the transaction did happen at a $1 Bn+ valuation, but this is still a rarity in the startup ecosystem. 

Even more so, because it is a number that the company has arrived at internally, at a time when it is preparing to raise from public market investors and set off on the IPO course. We know how public markets have been brutal on startup valuations, but that is a debate we will come to as and when Astrotalk firms up its IPO plans.  

Inc42 reported in 2025 that the startup was in talks to raise $50 Mn at a unicorn valuation. No such round has been announced since. And in a conversation with Inc42, Astrotalk founder and CEO Puneet Gupta says that Astrotalk does not need to raise capital before the IPO. 

The CEO added that the startup would consider a round only if reputed investors wanted to come on board ahead of the roadshow, and the purpose of such a round would be the names on the cap table rather than the money itself.

That is a strong position for a founder to be in, as it suggests the business is funding its own growth. With that said, it also means Astrotalk will approach the public market on a valuation that no external investor has had to defend so far.

Gupta did not comment on the 2025 round, on the IPO timeline, or on whether bankers have been appointed. But what he did point to is the growth seen by Astrotalk in the past year. And he also laid out the roadmap for a world beyond astrology that Astrotalk is eyeing. 

Checking In On The Financials

The growth itself is not in dispute. Astrotalk’s operating revenue rose from ₹283 Cr in FY23 to ₹651 Cr in FY24 and further to ₹1,176 Cr in FY25, roughly quadrupling in two years. Gupta expects FY26 revenue to be around ₹1,850 Cr, though the company is yet to file its financials.  

As for the profit line, there was a drop as Astrotalk invested in growth in FY25. Total expenses rose to ₹1,129 Cr in FY25 from ₹542 Cr in FY24, with spending rising across technology, operations, marketing and employee costs. As a result, PAT fell to around ₹33 Cr in FY25 from ₹85.5 Cr in FY24.

The company underlined that FY25 carried exceptional employee expenses, and that excluding these items, PBT rose 125% to ₹285 Cr from ₹127 Cr in FY24. That is plausible, as buybacks typically create one-time employee costs like these.

However, Astrotalk has not disclosed the size of the exceptional item, which will only become clear when the company files its DRHP ahead of the proposed IPO. 

International markets, which Astrotalk entered in late 2024 after its funding round that year, contributed around 20% of operating revenue in FY25 and 37% of the topline in FY26, according to Gupta. The US alone accounts for more than 60% of the international revenue.

The rest went into technology and senior hiring. Astrotalk brought in a former Google executive as CTO, and hired ex-GlobalBees leadership as CFO and as chief business officer for the store business. This underlined the company’s push into retail and ecommerce space. 

Astrotalk’s core business is connecting individuals to astrologers. Its average order value for consultations is around ₹210, close to 65% of revenue comes from users asking about marriage, the core customer group is between 25 and 35 years old, and women account for 60% of customers. It is a marketplace where the company carries no inventory, ships nothing and takes a cut of each consultation. 

This is the business that generated a ₹285 Cr PBT, and since the past two years, Astrotalk has looked to bulk up other verticals to supercharge user acquisition and get to profitable growth. 

Choosing Commerce Over Consultations 

The reason is clear when you see that the fastest growing part of the company is no longer the astrology consultation business but its stores.

Astrotalk Store, which was launched in November 2024, was floated with an investment of just ₹30 Lakh by the parent company. After seeing demand, the startup put in another ₹40 Cr to build inventory, strengthen supply chains and add categories, Gupta says. 

The vertical crossed ₹140 Cr in revenue in 2025, now runs at an ARR of over ₹200 Cr and has a daily GMV run rate of around ₹1 Cr, having processed more than 1.6 Mn orders of rudraksha, pyrite and crystal jewellery. 

As Gupta revealed, Astrotalk has since expanded into a separate gemstones platform offering precious and semi-precious stones with lab certification, astrology consultation and a replacement policy. The store adds more than 30 products a month, had over 300 SKUs earlier this year, and is targeting 500 SKUs and a ₹400-₹500 Cr ARR by FY27. 

Besides, the company has also made a push for offline stores as a third channel. The store’s AOV is around ₹900, which is significantly higher than the core business.

It is important to underline that a higher AOV is not the same thing as a better margin, and certainly not in the case of Indian ecommerce businesses, which are sensitive to discounts and sales. 

A typical ₹900 order from Astrotalk has allied costs such as inventory, warehousing, shipping, breakage and returns. When you take certified gemstones, there’s also an authentication liability attached, which the consultation business does not have. All this means, it’s a slightly more expensive business to scale up profitably. 

Astrotalk has not disclosed segment-level margins, so how much the company actually retains from an average transaction is not known. A lot of these gaps should be filled by the DRHP and by more clear disclosures by the company. 

Given the ecommerce focus and the scale benefits inherent in the retail business, Astrotalk is not just adding a new vertical. It is changing the kind of company it is, not long before the public market prices it. And not just that, it is confidently nailing a valuation hook to hang its optimism.

New Dawn For Astrotalk

The category around Astrotalk is difficult to size up at the best of times given how much unorganised work goes on in the spiritual commerce and consultation business. As per Inc42’s previous reporting, the wider spiritual economy is currently estimated to be at $60-70 Bn.

But it’s also true that the size of this market depends entirely on where the line is drawn between a consultation service and a faith commerce transaction, and Astrotalk has consistently tried to push into new territories. 

Competition has stiffened to some extent. Astroyogi sued Astrotalk over trademark breach claims, while InstaAstro took the company to the Competition Commission of India alleging abuse of dominance, a complaint the CCI quashed. Astrotalk has come out of the regulatory challenge intact. With that said, being the platform that competitors keep filing against is a set of facts a prospectus will have to carry.

Besides, AI is out to disrupt this space too. Startups such as AstroSure are building chatbots directly into the consultation, at a cost per conversation no human astrologer can match. If the edge is simply ecommerce, horizontal players can make a dent in Astrotalk’s plans. 

Already, quick commerce platforms are cashing in on moment-commerce, a term we proposed earlier. Every week brings some festive occasion that brands can leverage for instant sales boosts.  

The company’s own two other services, matchmaking and pooja, are currently free for a user base of over 4 Cr. Gupta did not say when, or whether, that changes. But somewhere along the line it has to become a centre for monetisation, especially if the IPO is a serious consideration. 

If there’s one thing public markets don’t like more than bloated valuations, it is a bloated product portfolio that has underperforming products. 

Therefore, Astrotalk enters the pre-listing phase with some tough questions that need answers — how much of the store business is profitable, what about new products and has consultation growth slowed down with the advent of AI?  

Gupta’s claim is that the store will be the next engine, and his stated ₹400-₹500 Cr ARR target for FY27 will definitely come under scrutiny. 

Some of the answers will also come with the DRHP and more disclosures in due time. These will be crucial to write the next chapter of the Astrotalk story and separate facts from simple faith. 

Edited By Nikhil Subramaniam
Creatives: Abhyam Gusai

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