Demonetization gives Astro startups a boost

Posted on November 21, 2016

The well-known consequence of demonetization is people rushing to banks and ATMs to withdraw or exchange their money. But apart from this, a consequence which nobody anticipated is the Astro startups in India get a huge boost in their sales and customer base. Astro startups in India like Askmonk.in, Monkvyasa.com, iZofy.com and Astrobuddy have witnessed a 40 – 50 % increase in inquiries this month. People have called, inquiring not only about their personal future but the future of India as well. There have been a lot of queries by the affected people, as to when the Indian economy would recover. One Askmonk.in user wrote: “My life with my family is totally in shattered states. We have incurred lots of debt due to losses and recently government has also lodged FIR against us for no supply and seized our property. Please guide if we will be able to recover from this stage”. Read more on Startups

Six – month – old Askmonk.in has been flooded with queries, said founder Vaibhav Magon. On an average day, we served about 10 – 20 clients. The day after demonetization took place we clearly saw an uptick on our radar and the number of queries doubled, indicating a direct impact of policy change, particularly on household and kirana businesses”. Another startup iZofy.com has 150 astrologers on its roster, including well-known ones such as the tarot card reader, Seema Midha and the astrologer, RK Sridhar. It is in talks with the celebrity astrologer, Ajay Bhambi to work on a predictive tool for corporates as it expects more businesses to seek solutions in the coming days. Kochi – based Monkvyasa.com has witnessed daily inquiries doubling to 1,000. “Most of the callers are between the age group of 24 to 35, usually working class. The uncertainty in the economy has made many worried”, said Dinup Kalleril, cofounder of Monkvyasa.com incubated and seed funded by Startup Village. Delhi – based Astro startup, Astrobuddy, has also witnessed a hike in its call volume. It usually receives 20,000 calls per day. But after the demonetization, its daily – call volume went up to 32,000 calls per day! Many traders had called to ask if they would go to jail or whether government agencies would create any problems in their life said Bhupesh Sharma, founder of Nyassa Astro, which owns the Astrobuddy app. Astrobuddy charges between Rs. 300 to Rs. 1000 for simple questions and between Rs. 1000 to Rs. 1,00,000 for complex questions. This is certainly one funny consequence nobody had expected! Read more on Startup News