Gully Labs walked into the Shark Tank India studio with a performance, literally. Traditional dancers moved across the floor, their feet clad in sneakers that looked closer to museum objects than mass-market footwear.
“We didn’t start with a business pitch,” Arjun Singh, co-founder of Gully Labs, said later. “All of this purely came from a feeling.” By the end of the episode, that feeling had been priced at Rs 175 crore.
Footwear startup Gully Labs returned to the funding spotlight this week after securing a deal on the latest season of Shark Tank India, closing its fourth round of capital at a valuation lower than what it originally sought but higher than what most investors on the show were willing to offer.
Founders Arjun Singh and Animesh Mishra accepted an offer from Boat co-founder Aman Gupta, who agreed to invest Rs 1 crore for 0.57% equity, valuing the company at about Rs 175 crore. The founders had entered Shark Tank asking for Rs 1 crore for 0.5% equity, implying a valuation of Rs 200 crore.
The sharks appeared genuinely taken in by the product and the retail experience. “The store is kamaaal,” Aman Gupta said. Kanika Tekriwal called the brand “very cool,” while Anupam Mittal leaned into the company’s origin story. Kunal Bahl, who had met the founders years earlier, noted that the concept they had once pitched him had now been executed at scale.
The admiration, however, didn’t extend to the valuation.
Gully Labs Financials
In FY24, the company clocked revenue of just Rs 20 lakh. That jumped to Rs 2.9 crore in FY25, with a loss of Rs 1 crore, as per financials accessed from Tofler. Last month alone, the brand did Rs 1.85 crore in sales while losing Rs 46.25 lakh, as per the pitch, on the reality show.
Gross margins stand at 56%, with 44% going into cost of goods sold. After accounting for logistics and platform fees (about 10%), the contribution margin (CM1) drops to 46%.
Marketing eats up roughly 35% of revenue, leaving CM2 at around 11%. The company employs 50 people on the corporate side and around 100 karigars in its manufacturing unit. Its Delhi store is currently at breakeven, and cash in the bank stands at about Rs 85 lakh.
Roughly a quarter of Gully Labs’ sales now come from overseas markets, including the US, UK, UAE, Singapore, Australia and Canada, a detail the founders leaned on heavily to justify their valuation.
“India is not price-conscious, it’s value-conscious”
The founders framed their business around aspiration rather than affordability. “India is not price-conscious, it’s value-conscious,” Arjun Singh told the sharks. Their sneakers are priced between Rs 5,000 and Rs 15,000, with their bestselling Calico White retailing at Rs 8,900 and featuring hand embroidery and premium leather.
In an earlier interview with financialexpress.com in July 2025, Singh detailed how a viral reel featuring “five Air Jordan alternatives” unexpectedly put Gully Labs on the map. “That reel got seven million views,” he said then.
“After that, someone tweeted about us—positive stuff. Then someone else started a hate thread. Called us lazy, accused us of being a cheap copy. That blew up, too. Funny enough, the guy who started that thread later quote-tweeted himself and said we actually make one of the best shoes.” Singh said.
The brand’s beginnings were unconventional even by startup standards. Singh had returned to India from Australia during the pandemic after stints in investment banking in Mumbai and Sydney.
“We didn’t start with a business pitch; all of this purely came from a feeling,” he had said. “There wasn’t a shoe. There wasn’t a business plan. Content was being made. We had a prototype. There was no funding, just content and a growing community.”
The earliest customers were recruited through a manifesto posted online and a WhatsApp group that grew to a few hundred people.
Animesh Mishra, who later became co-founder, was one of those early believers who pre-ordered a pair months in advance without knowing when it would arrive. “If you wanted these sneakers, pay a thousand bucks and reserve them months in advance,” Singh had recalled in the interview. “Six or seven months later, you’d get them.”
The negotiation that turned into a turf war
On Shark Tank, most of the sharks countered the Rs 200-crore valuation by offering Rs 1 crore for 1%, effectively halving it. Kunal Bahl, co-founder of AceVector and Titan Capital, suggested a joint deal, arguing that the founders could benefit from pooled expertise. Before he could finish, Aman Gupta cut in.
“Please don’t make decisions on my behalf,” Aman said. “Mai individual theek hoon.”
What followed was a prolonged back-and-forth that saw valuations bounce between Rs 100 crore and Rs 175 crore. Kunal proposed Rs 50 lakh for 0.5% equity with Rs 50 lakh in debt at 9% interest.
Aman, Kanika, Mohit and Anupam all anchored at Rs 1 crore for 1%. As the founders held firm, offers were revised upward: Rs 1.5 crore for 1% (Rs 150-crore valuation), then fractional equity at higher valuations.
The final counter from the founders was Rs 3 crore for 1.71% equity, implying a valuation of Rs 175 crore. Aman agreed to that valuation but only for himself, eventually settling on Rs 1 crore for 0.57%.
The deal closed with Aman celebrating on set while wearing a pair of Gully Labs sneakers.
A company still figuring out its economics
The company operates out of a 10,000-square-foot facility in Noida, with multiple stores across India. Each pair takes around four days to complete and passes through multiple stages of hand-cutting, stitching and assembly, Singh had told financialexpress.com.
About 25% of revenue now comes from overseas markets, including the US, UK, UAE, Singapore, Australia and Canada. The company is targeting Rs 100 crore in revenue by FY28, though Singh has said that number could be revised upward.
Yet the numbers underline the risk. Marketing costs remain high, losses are widening even as revenue grows, and the brand is still dependent on founder-led storytelling and cultural positioning rather than operational leverage.
Singh remains unapologetically ambitious. “Indian craft and design language have never been meaningfully elevated through more contemporary products,” he had said in his earlier interview. “That’s the gap. And for us, that’s a massive opportunity.”
For now, Gully Labs has walked away with a marquee investor, a higher-than-expected valuation, and national visibility. Whether that converts into sustainable margins will determine whether the Shark Tank moment becomes a turning point for them.