Shark Tank India Season 2 episode 14 premiered on January 19, 2023 with the title “Up And Coming Business Ideas” on Sony Entertainment Television and Sony LIV during the 10-11PM IST time slot. Payel Seth is the show’s creative director, while it’s been produced by Studio NEXT, with Ravikesh Vatsa as its writer.
The show is hosted by comedian Rahul Dua, and graced by six judges, better known as sharks – Anupam Mittal Founder-CEO of Shaadi.com – People Group; Aman Gupta, Co-Founder-CMO of boAt; Namita Thapar, Executive Director of Emcure Pharmaceuticals; Vineeta Singh, Co-Founder-CEO of SUGAR Cosmetics; Peyush Bansal, Founder-CEO of Lenskart.com and Amit Jain, Co-Founder-CEO of CarDekho Group and InsuranceDekho.com.
-Shark Tank India Season 2 Episode 14 Recap Contains Spoilers-
Shark Tank India Season 2 Episode 14 Recap
The first featured pitch is all about ‘Kyari’ pitching their safety equipment stick for hikers to ensure safe travels. Many forest officers have also adopted the utilisation of the same. Ordinary sticks can’t save a person from the hidden scares ready to pounce on the travellers. This is why ‘Kyari’ has developed the world first smart stick ‘Guardian’. Founders, adventure enthusiasts and siblings siblings Smratika and Abhay Sharma present their proudly designed and made in India product to the sharks.
With hopes of raising Rs. 51 lakhs for 1% equity, they aim at spreading word of their business globally. The features of the smart stick include – lights with multiple modes, loud alarm system, taser with 10,000V and 1 mA, power bank and a stand that can be used as an axe or a shovel. Amit is deeply impressed by the thought process that went into designing the product, especially since it’s been inspired by their personal experiences.
Smratika talks about how it’s a growing market at the time, and the game lacks Indian brands for adventure equipments. Their sales have accumulated Rs. 75 lakhs (year to date) in the financial year 2022-23, having begun in 2018 with Rs. 8 lakhs worth of annual sales. The Guardian price range goes from 10,000-17,500, with profit margin 30%, bringing Rs. 5.1 lakhs worth of monthly profits.
The sharks show they interest in the business on equal levels, but the founders don’t have any scope of agreeing with many negotiations after having come up with the precise calculations for the deal. Peyush, Anupam and Aman form a joint team and offer Rs. 51 lakhs for 12% equity, whereas Namita and Amit come together with a valuation for 10% equity. For this pitch, instead of the team proving its strong points, the shark start selling their terms and a tug of war ensues between them as why fight it out to win the chase.
Amit lays out his powers, while Peyush does the same for his team. However, ‘Kyari’ can’t go ahead with either of their valuations and they can’t dip further than 2% equity, which eventually pushes Aman out of the game. Amit revises his and Namita’s offer for 8% equity, but with a non-negotiable condition. Peyush and Anupam revise theirs to 10%, but the founders can’t devaluate their team at this point. Believing in their vision and potential, they don’t turn away from their word, but neither does Peyush. He offers his final counter as a solo investor for 5% equity. ‘Kyari’ tries to pull him down to 3.5%. More negotiations come in and the team finally shakes hands with Anupam and Peyush for a joint offer of Rs. 51 lakhs against 6% equity.
Ever craved for crispy paranthas and pakodas, but got a tattered dream handed to you in shape of a soggy food delivery? ‘MOPP Foods’ i.e. ‘Mad Over Paranthas and Pakodas’ is here to solve your food cravings in the arena. Founded by the couple – Gaurav and Geetika Anand Gupt the company seeks to tap an untapped food domain by granting you satisfying and mouth-watering returns. They’re India’s first brand selling such paranthas and pakodas, that are neither soggy, nor oily, through their cloud kitchen platform.
Explaining their business model, they reveal the three different verticals functioning under their name – MOPP, Mealy (Daily Meals) and Mad Over Curry (Authentic North Indian Curries). Having packed more than 3.5 lakh orders since 2019, the couple asks the sharks to join them with an investment of Rs. 75 lakhs for 2.25% equity.
They present both veg (Aloo Pyaar parantha) and non-veg (Chicken tikka parantha) options to the sharks as per their taste, and they’re all left wanting more. After gaining an experience of more than two years during prior research and development, they came up with a secret ingredient, which isn’t revealed for obvious reasons, to keep their food crispy. The sharks acknowledge the same and Geetika ji announces that the paranthas were prepared nearly an hour ago, still they retain their crispiness.
Moving on to the different rounds of amount raised, they speak about how they’ve previously been mentored by Rahul Singh (The Beer Cafe), who eventually joined in as an investor in their business in 2019. Thereafter, they raised two more rounds with the help of India Accelerator. They’re also in collaboration with Rebel Foods at the moment.
Early on, Namita pulls out of the deal as she marks that she has “no interest” in this field, and the remark itself is met with some laughs by the fellow sharks who tease her for not having used her favourite word “expertise”. While the team holds a vision of opening up 100 kitchens in the future, Anupam believes that they’ll meet with several challenges since their approach lacks a “brand pull” due to the numerous verticals functioning simultaneously.
Amit asks for the unit economics, which reveals their gross profit standing at 40%. The multi-tier business approach isn’t viewed as an agreeable fit by the sharks, which pushes away both Aman and Peyush. Although Aman jokes about Amit’s never-ending series of questions, the latter comes out with an offer for the team.
Despite the lacuna of expertise in the field, he’s open to learning ore through them and presents the offer of Rs. 50 lakhs for 5% equity and Rs. 25 lakhs Debt. The couple make an attempt to negotiate with him and ask for a counter of Rs. 75 lakhs for 5% equity as they don’t want the debt aspect to hamper their commitments to other investors. Amit readily agrees and can’t stop raving about their food. The deal is closed on a happy note.
Lastly, ‘Econiture’ developed by Ashish Modak, Bhushan Boob, Madhur Rathi and Roshan Pidiyar joins the Shark Tank set to introduce its vision of recycling plastic waste and converting it into uniquely designed, strong and durable furniture. Their pitch boasts their new setup making use of 100% plastic to execute their plans, which further helps in the reduction of metal mining and deforestation as well.
Having utilised more than 20,000 kg of plastic waste till now, they offer products like benches, chairs, beach chairs and more in the same category. To take their rather novel business model to the next height, they come knocking at the sharks’ doors for Rs. 50 lakhs against 8% equity.
The group of four childhood friends began their journey with this business in 2017 and price their benches at the MRP of Rs. 15,000, while the beach chairs stand at Rs. 18,000, since the transportation cost asks a lot of their business. In addition to this revised vision, they also run a complementary business of waste management, which intrigues the sharks.
They declare their last month sales for the furniture brand to have stood at Rs. 2.5 lakhs, making up 40% of their business alongside the waste management gig. On being asked by Anupam as to why they planned to make furniture and not anything else, the CEO conveys that the preparation of one bench itself takes up about 40 kg of plastic. Moreover, their competitors in the market, who seemingly follow the same approach of making item out of recycled plastic, never actually fully use plastic for the endeavours.
The sharks acknowledge their game plan and then move on to the projected sales being estimated at Rs. 1.6 crores for the financial year of 2022-23. Almost every shark believes that they’re still standing at an early stage of establishing themselves, and haven’t marketed furniture as the main aspect of their business. Moreover, creating a new category out of this will have its own set of challenges, due to which both Aman and Peyush pull out of the deal. Namita feels that she can’t add any value to their company, so she’s out as well.
Peyush, still applauds them for having built out such vibrant designs despite using waste, and even places an order of purchase for 1000 benches for his Lenskart showrooms. He shows more interest in their recycling business than the furniture vertical and advises them to build up on better branding for their work. Amit once again digs in to the unit economics and studies the breakdown.
Meanwhile, Anupam states that furniture alone will limit their brand and they should think of scaling upwards in this business. The founders are already thinking of panning out to other products like clothes, shoes, etc next, but the shark has an issue with the scalability of the brand at the moment, so e doesn’t take a chance for now.
Amit finally unveils his decision and hopes for them to scale better on the B2C level, for which he’s open to offering them guidance and asks them to stay in touch with him for the same. The team isn’t granted a deal for the day, but the founders walk away with insights into their business and are content with the result.
Shark Tank India Season 2 episodes will be broadcasted on Sony Entertainment Television and live-streamed on SonyLIV from Monday to Friday at 10 PM IST.