An AI-based startup created quite a buzz on the latest episode of Shark Tank India Season 5 when founder Ashish Lath walked away with a Rs 4 crore deal. At first, the judges were very sceptical about SaveSage, with Anupam Mittal even calling it a “new gimmick”. But their views quickly changed after Lath revealed that he had taken hundreds of free flights in the last ten years using credit card points. However, things took an unexpected turn once the episode aired. Soon after, many people rushed to the app store and started giving the app 1-star reviews.

Ashish Lath from Gurugram presented his startup, SaveSage – an AI-based app that helps users find the best credit card for their spending habits and keeps track of their reward points to suggest the best deals. In simple terms, it tells people how to get maximum value from the points they earn. 

Lath said there are 11 crore credit cards in India and an average person owns about 1.5 cards. He pitched his idea to sharks Kunal Bahl, Anupam Mittal, Namita Thapar, Mohit Yadav and Aman Gupta. He asked for Rs 1 crore in exchange for 1 per cent equity, valuing his company at Rs 100 crore. 

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Lath also mentioned that he used to work as Kunal’s Executive Assistant. Anupam was impressed and pointed out that one thing lath said ‘aise hi’ was actually the strongest part – that he gets over 23% returns from his expenses.

Anupam calls it ‘naya totka’; Lath reveals his massive travel savings

As Anupam listened to the pitch, he quickly reacted by saying, “Naya totka (new gimmick)”, suggesting that this sounded like a clever trick in the world of reward points. Lath then shared that he hasn’t paid for any flights for himself or his wife for the last 10 years. In that time, they have taken 350 domestic flights, 80 international flights and spent 100 nights in different hotels. He also said he bought jewellery worth Rs 15 lakh without paying anything. On top of that, he has earned a 23 per cent return on all his credit card spending in the past two years.

After the pitch, Aman challenged him to see who could find the cheapest flight to Dubai. They both tried different methods, and after some fun back-and-forth, Anupam declared, “Ashish Lath- 100, Aman – 0”. 

Business model, revenue plans and funding

Lath then showed his app and explained its features. Aman liked it and said, “It’s solid”, while Anupam added, “Selling point is strong.” Namita also praised the idea and said, “This model is great.”

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Explaining how he earns from the business, Lath said that it runs on a subscription model and has three revenue streams. Since starting the company in April 2024, he has raised two funding rounds worth Rs 6.8 crore. He currently has Rs 3.5 crore in the bank and spends around Rs 30 lakh per month.

Aman opted out, saying he can find similar information through Instagram reels, but the other sharks felt differently and made a joint offer. They offered Rs 4 crore for 12 per cent equity, valuing the company at Rs 33.33 crore. Lath’s last valuation was Rs 44.44 crore and he didn’t want to go lower. Finally, the deal was closed at Rs 4 crore for 9 per cent equity shared between Anupam, Kunal, Mohit and Namita.

SaveSage faces 1-star reviews after episode airs

After the episode aired, the SaveSage app started receiving many 1-star reviews on the Play Store/App Store because of the paywall. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Lath said he had mentioned during the pitch that savesage_club is a paid platform, but many users who reached the paywall gave a 1-star rating even though there was no mistake from SaveSage. 

“SaveSage app has been bombarded with 1* reviews on Play/ App store because of the paywall. I clearly communicated in my Shark Tank pitch that @savesage_club is a paid platform,” he wrote on X.

He also added that experts suggested there might even be a paid campaign from a bigger competitor trying to push down their rating. “We have been told by experts that there may also be a paid campaign by some bigger competitor to drop our rating,” he added.