‘The Anupam Mittal deal that never aired on Shark Tank’: What was the sexual wellness pitch of Lickcious all about?

Discover the untold story of Lickcious, the sexual wellness startup that secured a ₹50 lakh deal from Anupam Mittal on Shark Tank India, only to be cut from the broadcast. Explore why this IIT Delhi founder’s pitch never aired and how the brand is taking its "unaired" narrative directly to consumers.

Lickcious founder Ishan Jindal reveals how a Rs 50 lakh deal from Anupam Mittal on Shark Tank India never aired, and how the startup turned the setback into a marketing opportunity.

As a large scale of entrepreneurs across the country engage in the race of building the next great Indian start-up, it can certainly be hard to get the story if your enterprise is told on major mainstream media platforms.

In light of this situation, getting exposure on platforms like ‘Shark Tank India’ is often seen as a glamorous opportunity by founders to tell Indian consumers about their brand and entrepreneurial journey.

While the internet often focuses on Shark Tank pitches that either became roaring successful or failed miserably, today we bring you a story that secured a 50 lakh deal from Anupam Mittal but was never aired.

The story of Lickcious

Taking the matter of ‘being cut’ out of the show to social media, the founder, Ishan Jindal recently posted about his experience of being skipped out of Shark Tank India on Linkedin.

In his post, the IIT Delhi graduate mentioned the gruelling journey he and his team had taken to finally land on the set of Shark Tank India on November 9, 2025. As per Jindal’s post it took the start-up 5 months to finally get selected to put their story on the floor of Shark Tank India.

“This started in July last year. Round one. Round two. Then the studio on November 9. We pitched Lickcious, a sexual wellness brand to a room that doesn’t usually hear this directly. Anupam Mittal said yes. We walked out with a deal,” Jindal posted on X talking about the experience of making it to Shark Tank India.

“Everything we built after that was tied to March 18. We had imagined that moment too many times. Then around March 14, we got the update. It wouldn’t be going live. Not on Sony LIV. Not on YouTube. Not anywhere,” he added, talking about how the months of effort that was put in by their organisation had just disappeared after an executive decision.

“That moment we had already lived in our heads just disappeared,” Jindal added.

While Jindal did not mention the explicit reason due to which the studio decided not to air his episode, he mentioned that the Lickcious team with the support of Anupam Mittal did try to convince the studio to change their mind. A valiant effort that as per Jindal failed to bear any fruit.

Lickcious’s response: Taking charge of the narrative

In a move that’s somewhat representative of a start-up team’s hustle to turn setbacks into opportunities, Lickcious has launched a digital campaign around the event of ‘not being seen on Shark Tank’ on their website, where they have shared all details of their Shark Tank journey. Notably, the Lickcious team has even attached the complete transcript of their pitch, including the response it got from Sharks like Anupam Mittal and Kunal Bahl on their website.

Founded roughly a year back, Lickcious aims at providing an Oral intimacy solution to Indian couples. As per the transcript of their Shark Tank episode posted on their website, the brand came to Shark Tank an amount of 50 Laks in exchange for 2% of equity.

While the Lickcious team has mentioned that they received a check of Rs 50 Lakh from Anupam Mittal (The Shaadi.com founder), their website did not confirm if the deal was made for the same percentage of equity as pitched.