Shark Tank India Season 5 Episode 17 had a rather dramatic start as ‘Awayddings’ pitchers entered the tank with a dhol, a traditional Indian drum, facing the judges Aman Gupta, Namita Thapar, Kunal Bahl, Anupam Mittal, and Mohit Yadav. The destination wedding planners wooed the sharks with their festive flair.
CEO Ashish Arun and COO Vijay Kumar pitched their business and sought Rs 2 crore for 5 per cent equity, taking the valuation to Rs 40 crore. Hailing from Pune, Ashish had previously worked with OYO’s wedding vertical and soon realised the gap in this unorganised sector and decided to launch a one-stop shop for a destination wedding, that too under Rs 15 lakh in premium destinations like Goa and Jaipur, which normally break the bank of an average individual.
Dhol, destination weddings, and deals: Awaydding pitch at Shark Tank India
Starting strong with drum beats, Awaydding founders put the Sharks in a festive mood. Vibing to the beats, they efficiently explained their problem statement and pitched for investments. CEO Ashish met his co-founder in the unlikeliest of places – near a table tennis arena, where he was in a match against Kumar’s daughter. In 2021, they both put in Rs 42 lakhs to set up the business; however, they managed to find an external investor.
However, this raised a red flag among the Sharks as they questioned how they gave 50 per cent equity for Rs 1.23 crore, at the time. Mittal remarked, “Paise ke saath saath unhone se aapse aapki identity bhi le li [They took away your identity, with the money.]” But, the Awaydding CEO was quick to respond that they have restricted their equity at a 75-25 ratio with their angel investor, with Ashish and Vijay retaining an equal share of 37.5 per cent.
The dynamic duo offers an end-to-end solution for families from tasting and research to finalising the venue, food, and decor. While they even cater to high-end customers with a Rs 2 crore wedding, they started from capturing the lower end of Rs 10-15 lakhs. Their usual packages include a 3-day event to accommodate 80 guests.
From the money that they quote, a large chunk of nearly 70 per cent goes towards the venue, while 33.33 per cent is towards the dining and decor, with Varanasi and Rishikesh coming soon. Shark Tank judge Namita Thapar praised the team for building customer loyalty as 30 per cent of the marketing in handled by word-of-mouth alone.
What made the Sharks back out?
Awayddings aims to organise over 70 weddings by the end of FY 25-26, with a predicted revenue of Rs 3.6 crore. However, the high operational costs and immense scalability issues made several investors wary. Kunal Bahl remarked, “jaan nikal jaati hai!” as he backed out, citing the effort which sometimes requires 10 ten times the operations from the previous wedding, costing time, physical effort, and money.
Similarly, for Namita, the seasonality of the wedding business was foreseen as a big hurdle in its scalability. She also pointed out how the 17-member team would manage several weddings which coincide on the same date, given there are no ‘mini-Ashish’ or ‘mini-Vijay’.
Both the Minimalist and Shaadi.com founders had a similar constraint with the city and thus backed out of the deal. However, Shaadi.com’s Anupam Mittal also advised them to limit their operations to their niche areas, Goa and Jaipur. He remarked that they should become ‘wedding gundays [wedding goons]’ of the cities, monopolising the market and dominating the wedding planning business, across budgets.
Aman Gupta gives an offer…but on one condition
Finally, Shark Tank judge Aman Gupta, the Bollywood fanatic on set, shared that he had always dreamed of being a part of a ‘Band Baja Baarat’-like business. Often quoting movies, he also quoted a dialogue from Sholay in previous episodes.
Gupta offered Rs 1 crore for 10 per cent equity and further, Rs 1 crore debt at 10 per cent interest for 2 years, a significant deviation from their original ask of Rs 2 crore for 5 per cent equity. However, the only condition he wanted was, ‘isme mera naam kahi nhi aega [my name won’t be mentioned anywhere].”
After concentrated deliberation, Awaydding founders agreed to sign the deal. The trio celebrated with a dhol, as Gupta danced his way up to the founders to hand them the cheque. They shared a candid moment as Mittal asked Gupta to sit on the dhol as they celebrated the deal together.