From a finance analyst crunching numbers at Nomura and BNP Paribas to building India’s largest online astrology platform. Puneet Gupta’s journey shows how an unlikely, often-dismissed market astrology can be turned into one of India’s most profitable tech unicorns. As co-founder and CEO of Astrotalk, Gupta has built a business that crossed a ₹2,500 crore annualised revenue run rate and hit a $1 billion valuation in 2026, entirely while staying largely bootstrapped.
Who is Puneet Gupta?
Puneet Gupta is an Indian entrepreneur best known as the co-founder and CEO of Astrotalk, an online platform connecting users with astrologers, tarot readers, numerologists, and Vastu experts through chat, audio, and video consultations.
He co-founded the company in 2017 in Noida, alongside Anmol Jain, who joined initially as Chief Business Officer in 2021 and was later elevated to co-founder. Before Astrotalk, Gupta had already built and run CodeYeti Software Solutions, an IT services company.
Early Life and Education
Gupta completed his schooling at St. Xavier’s High School, Bathinda, before attending S.S.D. Sen. Sec. Public School, also in Bathinda, where he studied the Non-Medical stream. He went on to attend PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh for his undergraduate degree.
Career Before Astrotalk
His early career ran through corporate finance rather than astrology or spiritual tech. A background that shapes how methodically Astrotalk has scaled:
- In 2010 interned at Philips Electronics India
- He joined Nomura Services India as an Analyst in 2011
- Moved to BNP Paribas India Solutions as a Senior Analyst in 2014
- In 2015, he Co-founded and ran CodeYeti Software Solutions, an IT services company that served over 100 clients and crossed ₹1 crore in annual revenue
Building Astrotalk: Betting on an Underserved Market
Astrotalk was founded in 2017. It started from a contrarian insight: India’s relationship with astrology wasn’t a fading cultural relic, but an active, high-demand market that had never been properly digitized or made trustworthy at scale. Most investors initially dismissed the category. Puneet Gupta and Anmol Jain built around the idea that the real problem wasn’t demand. It was trust, consistency, and access to genuinely qualified astrologers.
It’s a pattern similar to how Alakh Pandey built Physics Wallah into an ed-tech unicorn — spotting durable, profitable demand in a category most investors had already written off.
The platform now connects users with more than 45,000 spiritual practitioners across Vedic astrology, tarot, numerology, Vastu, and kundli matching. It claims an estimated 80% share of India’s online astrology market against competitors like InstaAstro, Astroyogi, and AstroSage.
From Bootstrapped to Unicorn
Astrotalk’s growth has been unusually capital-efficient for a company reaching unicorn status:
- FY24 revenue: ₹651 crore, with ₹100 crore net profit
- FY25 revenue: ₹1,176 crore, with ₹285 crore in profit before tax
- 2026 revenue run rate: crossed ₹2,500 crore
- Total funding raised: roughly $30–34 million across its funding history. A fraction of what most unicorns raise.
- August 2026: Astrotalk reached a $1 billion valuation, achieving unicorn status through an ESOP buyback involving more than 100 employees not a traditional funding round. That marked a roughly 3.3x jump from its $300 million valuation in mid-2024.
The company has also expanded into spiritual commerce through Astrotalk Store. Its e-commerce arm selling gemstones and spiritual products, which reportedly reached a daily GMV run rate of around ₹1 crore and processed 1.6 million orders in 2025. A dedicated lab-certified gemstone platform followed, aimed at solving trust and sourcing problems in India’s fragmented gemstone market.Astroltalk
Astrotalk IPO Plans
Astrotalk has signaled readiness for a public listing, reportedly targeting an IPO around 2026–2027. The 2025 appointment of Deepak Khetan as CFO was widely read as preparation for that move.
Key Takeaways
- Contrarian market bets can work: Gupta and Jain built a category-leading business in a market most investors dismissed outright.
- Capital efficiency matters: Astrotalk reached unicorn status having raised only around $30–34 million remarkably little for a company at that scale.
- Profitability first: Unlike many Indian startups chasing growth at any cost, Astrotalk has been profitable for years before its unicorn milestone.
- Trust as the real product: The founders identified that astrology’s biggest business problem wasn’t demand, but credibility and built verification and quality systems around that insight.
- Diversification: Expansion into e-commerce (Astrotalk Store) and gemstones shows how a services platform can build adjacent revenue lines from the same user trust.
Note: This piece draws on reporting from Entrackr, Inc42, Elev8 Venture Partners, The Org, Crunchbase, and Yourstory. Revenue, funding, and valuation figures reflect the most recent publicly reported numbers as of 2026. Astrotalk is privately held and some figures may vary by source and update date.
FAQs
Puneet Gupta studied at St. Xavier’s High School and S.S.D. Sen. Sec. Public School in Bathinda, before attending PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh, for his undergraduate degree.
When was Astrotalk founded, and who founded it? Astrotalk was founded in 2017 by Puneet Gupta, in Noida. Anmol Jain, who joined as Chief Business Officer in 2021, was later elevated to co-founder.
Astrotalk reached a $1 billion valuation in 2026 via an ESOP buyback, up from around $300 million in mid-2024. It reported ₹1,176 crore in revenue for FY25, with an annualised run rate crossing ₹2,500 crore in 2026.
Before Astrotalk, Gupta worked as an analyst at Nomura Services India and later BNP Paribas India Solutions and before co-founding and running CodeYeti Software Solutions, an IT services company.