‘Sharks’ or investors on SonyLIV’s business reality show Shark Tank have closed 99 deals of the 103 commitments they had made on Season 2, which aired early last year, data from Tracxn showed. This marks a 96% share of deals closed, which is much higher than the 41.5% they had closed in the first season out of 65 commitments, as per Private Circle data.
Shark Tank investors put in around $13 million in the 99 startups, which includes equity and conventional debt. Among the startups that had received commitments on Season 2, beauty and personal care startup Ghar Soaps, gelato brand Amore and dessert brand Cakelicious did not manage to close the deal, post due diligence.
Ghar Soaps, based in Pune, had bagged an offer of Rs 60 lakh for 4% equity from boAt co-founder Aman Gupta, while Amore had received a commitment for Rs 75 lakh for 7.5% of their equity from shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal, on a condition that Amore needs to achieve sales of Rs 80 lakh a month by March 2023.
Meanwhile, Cakelicious had received a commitment of Rs 25 lakh for 20% equity from CarDekho co-founder Amit Jain, giving it a valuation of Rs 1.25 crore. However, reasons for the deals falling through could not be ascertained.
Besides these, Dhruv Vidyut, which makes devices to convert a manual cycle to a battery-powered one, is not considered on the list of deals closed since there was no financial arrangement to the deal.
Its founder Gursaurabh Singh had asked for 0.5% equity in exchange for 100 hours of the investor’s time.
Talking about the journey of a deal offered on Shark Tank, shaadi.com’s Mittal noted on a media interview that 90% of deals that do not happen after the initial commitment is because of the founder backing out after getting a better valuation outside. Typically, the entire post-commitment process can take anywhere between a month to more than a year depending on the readiness of the companies to receive funding, he said.
Among the startups in season 2 that successfully closed their deals were dental care brand Perfora, apparel brand Freakins, chocolate-maker Lil’ Goodness, pregnancy and parenting app iMumz, online spice brand Zoff, hair-care company Ravel, Sharmaji Ka Aata, and hair-colour brand Paradyes, among others.
A total of 166 startups had pitched on the second season of the show, compared to 117 that had participated in the previous season. The third season of the show is currently on air, and features a rotating panel of 12 investors including executive director of Emcure Pharmaceuticals Namita Thapar, Lenskart co-founder Peyush Bansal and Sugar Cosmetics co-founder Vineeta Singh, who were also present in the last two seasons.