ConfideIn, a faith-based wearables startup based in Los Angeles, announced in mid-November that it raised $6 million in seed funding from venture firms and Christian leaders to support its Prayer Rings.

The sleek ring, stamped with a cross, connects to smartphones to deliver scripture verses plucked from the Bible based on the user’s mood or feelings. It also acts as a social media tool, allowing people to send prayers and blessings anonymously to anyone around the world.

The company is distributing 77,700 prayer rings to Christian communities in the U.S. The number seven is significant to the faith, symbolizing divine completion in the Bible. The campaign is meant to help congregations experiment with technology.

“We believe that in a fast-paced world, the timeless acts of prayer and spiritual connection are more important than ever,” the company said in a statement. “The Prayer Ring doesn’t replace pastors or spiritual leaders; it enhances the spiritual experiences believers already value. It recreates what many of us experienced in our own faith journeys: receiving the right scripture at the right moment from spiritual leaders and feeling the power of our church community’s prayers.”

At first, religion and technology may seem like an incongruous intersection. Religion is often centered around cultivating centuries-old timeless practices, while startups are heralded for their reputation as a “disruptor.” But as newer generations find community online – be it through niche hobbyist forums, YouTube videos or advice-based podcasts – faith organizations are expanding their reach beyond the physical borders of their churches, mosques and temples to reach congregants that span countries and languages.

“This is actually the central argument of one of the major sociologists of religion, Émile Durkheim, about the nature of religion. Religion is about the sacred being protected from the profane,” said Jeffrey Guhin, an associate professor of sociology at UCLA. “The sacred has to be sort of kept separate from normal life.”

Spiritually focused companies reached $140 million in venture funding globally in 2024, according to PitchBook. That’s nothing close to the billions of funding poured into other industries, but it’s a clear sign that technology has quickly found its place in the spiritual and religious realm.

Search for ‘sound investments’

Perhaps the technological advancement of organized religion is unsurprising – spirituality companies have found great success online. Co-Star, an astrology app that delivers personalized life advice and relationship guidance, has raised around $21 million to date, according to PitchBook. The app has also been downloaded more than 20 million times.

ConfideIn isn’t even the first faith-based startup in Los Angeles to receive venture funding. Pray.com, a Santa Monica-based religion-focused social networking and media platform, has raised around $34 million in funding since its launch in 2016. The app allows users to connect, listen to prayers and podcasts on religious topics, request meetings with faith officials and donate to nonprofits and religious organizations.

“Silicon Valley would be remiss to exclude organized religion when analyzing and forecasting sound investments,” Mike Jones, the chief executive of Science Inc. and investor in Pray.com, said in a statement. “According to PitchBook, (venture capital) funding in faith-based apps has tripled since 2015. Now more than ever, people are seeking a spiritual and digital experience that fits into their modern, mobile lifestyles.”

Pray.com, which has been experimenting with artificial intelligence, launched a chatbot offering that is trained on religious texts and pastors’ sermons to support users through confessions, deep-seated fears and intimate decisions.

The company also began rolling out podcasts enhanced with artificial intelligence. Faith leaders have been using Pray.com’s AI tools to translate their sermons into multiple languages, allowing them to reach English- and Spanish-speaking congregants in their communities or listeners across the globe.

“(Ministries) have to now reach people not just physically, but digitally as well,” said Ryan Beck, Pray.com’s co-founder and chief technology officer.  “Maybe instead of going to a physical church two times a week, they’re going digitally the other time. And so, it’s becoming hybrid.”

The future of faith

It seems faith-based communities are having a revelation about navigating the online space. While religious communities have long used the internet to sermonize, they mobilized en masse during the pandemic to livestream services and evangelize before a glassy black camera lens, as hearts and emojis from viewers showered the screen. Carlo Acutis, who the Catholic Church canonized as the first millennial saint in September, was nicknamed “God’s Influencer” after using the early internet to build a website documenting eucharistic miracles. He passed away at the age of 15 from complications related to acute promyelocytic leukemia. His tomb is livestreamed around the clock.

People are tuning into such religious events. According to a Pew Research study published in February, 23% of Americans watch religious services online or on TV around once a month.As religious sentiment in the U.S. continues to decline, faith leaders are meeting people where they’re at: on social media. The “Sheikh Google” phenomenon, for example, refers to kids learning about Islam through the narrow view of simply searching for a Muslim leader’s answer to particular questions online.

“The internet simultaneously makes it easier to find community and also makes it much easier to be individualistic,” Guhin said.

Pray.com began when co-founder Steve Gatena suffered a sudden loss when his business partner and close friend passed away. He began wading through a sea of podcasts and short-form videos from the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Deepak Chopra before the once-atheist found a pastor’s sermon. It inspired him to release religious content from algorithms that siloed them from the discovery feed.

“Millennials, Gen Z and new generations are going to be online native rather than in-person native. They’re going to default to finding communities and content online,” Beck said. “How younger people start their spiritual journey is online. And we wanted to build that place for people to do that.”

But the question of religion as something sacred among the profane, or the normal, persists – conflicting messaging, festering extremism and faith-based content sandwiched between Instagram ads concerns some religious scholars. For many, religion is inextricably tied to the otherworldly – like dressing up, entering an architecturally-detailed worship hall and chanting in another language. For others, religion is expressed in the everyday mundanity.

“You’re supposed to have a feeling that this isn’t like the regular world,” Guhin said. “But there’s just this increasing sense that being on the internet now is kind of impossible not to.”