Online spiritual wellness startup Emerging Vision raises US$4m in Series A funding

EMERGING Vision, an online spiritual wellness startup that facilitates livestreaming sessions with astrologers and life coaches, has raised US$4 million from its Series A funding round, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.

This brings the company's total funding to US$5 million, which will be used to enhance its livestreaming technology and artificial intelligence-powered online spiritual platforms, as well as scale its operations across new and existing markets, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

Emerging Visions said it also plans to launch its own e-commerce marketplace that will eventually "morph into the first port of call for global users seeking spiritual wellness with offerings focusing on livestreaming, consultation, content and community".

Founded in 2019, the Singapore-headquartered company runs apps that provide users with interactive, face-to-face consultations with verified astrologers, tarot readers, life coaches and mentors through livestreaming services.

The platform has two main formats - free live public sessions that allow users to understand the service, and private live sessions with paid users for tailored consultations - which are built "specifically with the digital-native, Generation Z in mind".

"Although spiritual services involve centuries-old ancient practices that have existed in myriad forms across countries and religions, the market is highly fragmented and traditionally operates offline," said Alan Cui, founder and chief executive of Emerging Vision.

Since it launched its Guruji and Teller apps on Android and iOS, respectively, the company had a US$6 million annualised revenue run rate. Its platform also currently has 180,000 consultations per month with around 30 per cent of new users returning to consult the app again in the following month.

Akshay Bhushan, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, said: "Emerging Vision has created a transformative approach towards spiritual wellness at a time where there is fast growing demand globally for wellness solutions."

Emerging Vision's team includes more than 550 verified astrologers from over ten areas of expertise, in areas such as astrology, tarot reading, palmistry and numerology.