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Poster of Shark Tank India season two
| Photo Credit: Shark Tank India
Over the last couple of years, India’s startup ecosystem has grown considerably with funding from global and domestic venture capitalists. This has encouraged several dormant and budding entrepreneurs to take a dive with the hope of finding a lifeline, or maybe even a ‘shiver’ of sharks to help them set sail. Shark Tank India is the Indian version of Shark Tank, a four-time Emmy-winning American reality TV show, which is in turn a franchise of the Japanese original Dragons’ Den. Through its 13 seasons since it began screening in 2009, Shark Tank has found a huge global audience, with investors, or ‘sharks’, like Kevin O’Leary, Barbara Corcoran, Robert Herjavec, and Daymond John participating.
A still from ‘Shark Tank India’ season 1
In Shark Tank India’s first edition, which ran from December 2021 to February 2022, 67 out of 198 businesses managed to impress the sharks and secured hefty investments and mentorship. “Season one’s impact can be seen in season two. The quality of entrepreneurs, pitches and businesses are very high,” says Peyush Bansal, CEO and Founder of Lenskart, a shark on the show. He adds that entrepreneurs have become smarter and that the sharks have also become smarter. “Sharks have learnt,” prompts Aman Gupta, CMO and Co-founder of boAt, another shark on the show.
In this show, entrepreneurs pitch their businesses to the sharks to secure an investment for a percentage of equity. While only a portion of the pitch and probe is shown on screen, this is an hour-long process on the set. “Since we have been through a round of investments ourselves and we know exactly what to look for and as a panel, we make sure each of us takes the right decision,” says Aman. Peyush backs him saying, “Each shark has their own expertise in branding, marketing, finance, tech, e-commerce etc and with this we complement each other.”
Still from Shark Tank India season 1
In the previous season, Annie Tinkerbell Labs presented its Self-Learning Braille Literacy Device and secured an investment of Rs 1.05 crores for 3 per cent equity from Peyush Bansal, Namita Thapar, and Anupam Mittal. Sunfox Technologies for its Portable ECG device, Spandan, got an investment of Rs 1 crore for 6 per cent equity of the company from all the Sharks. Skippi Ice Pops which makes natural popsicles also got Rs 1 crore from all of them for a 15 per cent equity and so did In A Can, makers of canned cocktails for 10 per cent. Aman Gupta made a solo investment of Rs 1 crore for 40 per cent equity in Hammer Lifestyle which manufactures audio devices and fitness bands after offering to buy the company.
While these businesses and many others were chosen based on metrics like innovation, profit, sustainability and more, Peyush says that his decision to invest is 80% based on the entrepreneur. “It is their ability to drive growth sustainably with innovation that matters. Eventually the captain of the ship has the most responsibility”… “Captain of the boAt,” corrects Aman in a ‘it-was-right-there’ tone.
Season two of Shark Tank India airs on SonyLIV and Sony Entertainment TV from January 2, 2023. Aman says that he is both excited and nervous to see how this season will be received, especially with the bar set by the previous edition. Giving a sneak peek into what to expect, Peyush says “the size of the deals has increased, almost doubled,” and Aman adds that there are many agri-tech and health-tech businesses to watch out for. He also adds that there is good representation this season with pitches being made in the entrepreneurs’ native languages. The show is predominantly in Hindi and can be watched with subtitles on SonyLIV.
Along with Aman Gupta and Peyush Bansal, Anupam Mittal, founder of Shaadi.com, Sugar Cosmetics co-founder Vineeta Singh, and Namita Thapar, executive director of Emcure Pharmaceuticals, will be back this season. Amit Jain, founder of Car Dekho will be making his debut as a Shark this season. Ashneer Grover, ex-managing director and founder of BharatPe and Ghazal Alagh, co-founder and chief mama of MamaEarth, won’t be back in the tank. Season one’s host Rannvijay Singha has passed the baton to stand-up comedian Rahul Dua for this edition.
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