In October 2023, Astrotalk’s Founder and CEO Puneet Gupta announced plans to go for an IPO in 2-3 years (with possibly a $1B+ valuation). This is unheard of, for a company that’s only 8 years old and bootstrapped. As of Aug 2025, Astrotalk has also hired a CFO to spearhead IPO readiness. This pace of growth prompted me to dive deeper and create this growth case study on Astrotalk.
The young online astrology startup is a poised to disrupt the industry dominated by 20+ year old incumbents operating almost since the beginning of internet adoption in India.
This case study delves into their unique journey, highlighting organic growth strategies and the pivotal role they will play in its ambitious goal of reaching a 2000+ Cr revenue before its IPO in 2026-27.
Astrotalk’s Financials
FY23: Astrotalk reported a revenue of INR 282Cr and a profit of 27Cr, a 4X increase YoY.
FY24: Revenue ₹651.1 Cr, profit ~₹100 Cr. Another 4x increase YoY.
FY25: Internal/press reporting indicates revenue ~₹1,182 Cr and profit >₹250 Cr.
The biggest expense for the company is astrologer payouts, followed by performance marketing.
– Inc42: Decoding Astrotalk’s Fortunes
Astrotalk’s Revenue (August 2025)
As of August 2025, Astrotalk’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) is ~INR 1600 crores. Source here.
Puneet Gupta also mentioned in his Linkedin post that 60% of their revenue comes from marriage-related questions. Source here.
The key question
Given their target of reaching 2,000 Cr revenue before IPO, curbing marketing spends will be a significant challenge. Since 2023, public markets have been much more critical of unprofitable growth.
So is SEO going to be their next core growth engine, or something else?
Business and Market Overview
The Product
Astrotalk’s revenue model is primarily driven by one-on-one consultations of customers with Astrologers in the 2 sided marketplace.
This accounts for 90% of its revenue.
Users engage with astrologers on a pay-per-minute basis, starting from INR 5 per minute to INR 200+ per minute.
- The appeal for customers is convenience of consulting on aspects of life including love, finance, Vastu, career, luck, marriage, in a medium of their choice and at the time of their convenience.
- The appeal for astrologers is not only free publicity but also a chance to directly earn money from the viewers. Top astrologers on Astrotalk earn on average INR 80,000 per month. And the highest earning by an astrologer has gone up to INR 15,00,000 per month
Astrotalk charges approximately 20% commission for its services.
Post‑2024, Astrotalk launched a D2C “AstroTalk Store/AstroMall” remedies vertical, available on Myntra/Amazon with Zepto planned. Astrologer consultations are still a majority but management is diversifying with D2C.
Target Audience
Astrotalk primarily caters to the young, ambitious demographic (20-35 years), often migrating to metros.
The secondary target includes astrologers who build their profiles on the platform. As of 2025, they have 41K+ astrologers on the platform.
Google Play now shows 50 million+ downloads till date, with 1.2M+ reviews.
Funding
Astrotalk, founded in 2017, is profitable.
- The company raised its seed round of $800K in August, 2021 through Kunal Shah’s QED Innovation Labs
- As of November 2023, Astrotalk was in talks to raise $40M in the pre-IPO round
- Jun 2024: Series A extension $9.5M led by Evolv/Elev8 Venture Partners
With this, Astrotalk has raised a total of $30.3M till date.
SEO Market Overview
Astrotalk’s competitive landscape is divided into direct (same business model, same target keywords) and indirect competitors (different business model, same target keywords).
Indirect competitors
Indirect competitors have different business models that leverage other page types to scale SEO than Course Hero.
- News: Hindustan Times, India Today, Dainik Bhaskar etc.
- Lifestyle Blogs: Vogue, Elle etc.
Direct competitors
Direct competitors operate on the same business model and keywords. Astrosage, Astroyogi and GaneshaSpeaks are the ones with the highest overlap, and all of them offer 1 on 1 consultations with Astrologers, with pay-per-minute pricing.
Organic Traffic Comparison
Astrotalk has demonstrated the best growth trajectory compared to its competitors, but the next real challenge lies in sustaining this momentum.
All 3 of Astrotalk’s direct competitors have been driving acquisition from SEO longer than Astrotalk has even existed.
The company’s high Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) in regions like the US, UK, Canada, and Australia further accentuates this growth story.
| Company | Global Traffic (M) | India % | High ARPU Nations % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Astrotalk | 3.1 | 45% | 47% |
| Astroyogi | 2.6 | 60% | 32% |
| Astrosage | 5.7 | 88% | 5% |
| GaneshaSpeaks | 3.1 | 47% | 43% |
Growth Challenges
Keeping the Core Growth Loop Going
Astrotalk’s Core Growth Loop
- Customer acquired through Ads with First Free Session
- Customer consults Astrologers 1 on 1, and stays hooked till free credits are exhausted
- A fraction of customers top up wallet for more
- CAC recovered in 6-8 months*
- 80% revenue from Repeat Buyers*
- Profits reinvested in Performance Marketing
- 🔁
Source for CAC and Repeat Buyer revenue here.
Growth Opportunities
No flywheel spins forever without new inputs.
To keep it going, Astrotalk must
- Grow non-linearly in organic channels like SEO
- Cover other astrology related practices popular in High ARPU geographies e.g. tarot, psychic reading
- Manage reputation of Astrologers
Linear Growth with SEO
Astrotalk’s linear growth strategy would involve meticulous tracking of the success metrics at each step of the funnel, and fix the leaky-est part.
Non-Linear Growth
For exponential growth, Astrotalk could leverage SEO growth loops, plan strategic Mergers & Acquisitions, and enhance their digital presence through effective link-building strategies.
SEO Growth Loop
Adding new inputs to the original Growth Loop:
- Astrologers acquired through ads / word of mouth
- Astrologers contribute to SEO content for additional platform visibility
- A fraction of Astrologers’ Expert Quotes boost rankings (EEAT)
- New customers acquired from ranking on top of SERPs
- Higher Demand = Higher Prices
- Higher Prices = New Astrologers
- 🔁
This aligns with Google’s “Hidden Gems” update of Nov 2023, emphasising the importance of expert content.
Website M&As (Mergers & Acquisitions)
There are enough opportunities out in the market for acquisitions. For example, on Flippa there are complimentary web businesses available to evaluate and buy.
When evaluating acquisition of the web businesses, Astrotalk should focus on the following factors if not more:
- Business Model Fit: The 7-year-old education-oriented service business could seamlessly blend with Astrotalk’s consultancy, while the entertainment site, despite its affiliate sales model, could offer a diverse revenue stream.
- Financials: Consider the 7-year education site’s steady monthly profit of $3,585 and the entertainment site’s more substantial $7,528, alongside their respective market asking prices.
- Site Age: The established 7-year presence of the education site could indicate a stable SEO rank and customer base, while the 2-year entertainment site may suggest more recent market entry with growth potential.
- Audience Match: The entertainment site’s U.S.-centric audience is a strategic plus since it is aligning with Astrotalk’s International expansion goals.
- Scalability: The entertainment site’s potential for scaling is hinted at in the listing, which could be a significant factor for Astrotalk’s growth plans.
- Operational Integration: Briefly assess how easily these businesses could be integrated into Astrotalk’s current operations.
- SEO Impact: The listings do not detail SEO metrics as of now, but the established domain age and existing content are important evaluation criteria.
- Regulatory Due Diligence: It makes sense to check for any regulatory challenges, especially considering the different bases of the businesses (U.S and Australia) even if marketplaces like Flippa provide support.
Digital PR Link Building
Digital PR is done to get media coverage and links from relevant sites. Here’s a recent marketing campaign, where the CEO announced that Astrotalk will distribute 100 crores in the Astrotalk wallet of customers when India wins the Cricket World Cup 2023.
And after the announcement, they were covered by major publications, driving several links and mentions –
This doesn’t mean they actually spent 100 Cr to only get media coverage & links. Rahul Mathur’s post on Linkedin shares an analysis of the marketing campaign.
There are many other creative ways to drive high quality links at high velocity. My personal favourite example is “How much would Video Game Characters Earn” PR Campaign by solitaired.com and Search Intelligence Co. You can check the campaign details here.
Building Sustainable Moats
In a managed marketplace, both buyer and seller experience matter. Since the offering is completely digital, it can also be thought of as a SaaS Marketplace business.
Early stage brands can replicate success. For that, competitive moats need to be built on top of each other till you figure our your unique formula.
Here are some competitive moats Astrotalk seems to have stacked:
Network Effects
As new users join, value of marketplace increases. More buyers spending time and money, attracts more sellers (astrologers). More sellers means buyers can choose the ones that work best for them.
In early stages, aggressive marketing and growth hacking can work. Freemium models, like the “First Chat Free” model of Astrotalk does this.
Once a minimum viable scale is achieved, focus on experience is increased to keep churn in control.
Check out the network effects bible if you’re hearing about this for the first time.
Brand
Brand building for a growth stage startup in 2024 has unique challenges. Spray-and-Pray just doesn’t work.
The brand building principle of building familiarity remains. Top of mind brand recall remains.
But to do it without splurging money is the challenge. That’s why laser targeting is important. Few advertising platforms offer a laser targeting that Meta and Google do. So they remain the top choice of brands like Astrotalk, even when they’re spending INR 200+ Crores (USD 2M+) in ads.
Data Lock
Conversations with Astrologers often begin with the buyer sharing their name, date of birth and city of birth. This is unique data not often easily available to be acquired instantly by any newcomer.
Deeper a customer’s profile is built into your business, harder it’ll be for them to move out.
There are many more factors into play when building a business. And often successful businesses have moats not easily breachable, or even visible.
Before You Go
As Astrotalk strides towards becoming India’s first spiritual tech unicorn, its organic growth strategy, particularly in sync with performance marketing and SEO, is likely to play a critical role in their future.
Let me know in comments what you found interesting about this growth case study on Astrotalk. You can drop me a message on my LinkedIn profile here.
Or book a call directly if you’d like help with growing your business organically –
Performance Marketing is a very powerful growth channel, but it’s important to build for new inputs into growth loops before saturation.
Sustainable growth is about finding the right balance of harvesting the present and investing in the future.