Shark Tank India is a Hindi-language business reality TV series broadcast on Sony Entertainment Television. The series with its third season is continuing to bask in its popularity amongst the Indian audience. The show revolves around new-age entrepreneurs delivering business pitches to an esteemed panel of investors aka the ‘sharks’. Based on their pitches, the sharks will determine whether or not they will invest in the presented ventures.
Shark Tank India Season 3 consists of a panel of judges that includes Deepinder Goyal, Founder and CEO, Zomato; Azhar Iqubal, Co-founder & CEO, Inshorts; Ritesh Agarwal, Founder & CEO, OYO Rooms; Radhika Gupta, MD & CEO, Edelweiss MF; Varun Dua, Founder, ACKO; Amit Jain, Co-Founder & CEO, CarDekho Group; Ronnie Screwvala, Co-Founder and Chairperson, UpGrad; Aman Gupta, CEO and Founder of boAt; Namita Thapar, Executive Director – India Business, Emcure Pharmaceuticals; Peyush Bansal, Co-Founder & CEO, Lenskart; Vineeta Singh, Co-founder & CEO, SUGAR Cosmetics and Anupam Mittal, Founder & CEO, People Group (including Shaadi.com).
Shark Tank India Season 3 Episode 46 Recap
The latest episode is a rollercoaster ride of emotions because of hard-hitting entrepreneurs with moving stories that will steal your heart or make you gasp! Today’s Sharks include Aman Gupta, Ritesh Agarwal, Vineeta Singh, Anupam Mittal and Peyush Bansal.
Indigifts
The first startup in this episode is a homegrown gifting brand for every occasion in a person’s life that is backed by emotions. The founders, a husband-wife duo, discuss the purpose of their brand and how they want to transform it into something that becomes a household name when it comes to gifting. And, to make that dream come true, they ask for Rs 50 Lakhs in exchange for 2% equity.
After discussing their backgrounds and how they started this business, the Sharks are left speechless when they learn the care and dedication that Nitin has for Divya, especially when it comes to gifting, as well as the fact that everything is designed by him as well. The Sharks are further convinced by their pairing after they hear about their backstories, with Anupam mentioning that they feel like they are soulmates.
Afterwards, the Sharks get some of the quirky but relatable samples that the company produces while they mention the gap that is missing in gifting these days, namely emotions and storytelling. The Sharks compliment their creativity and their tagline and are left positively surprised after learning about their trademark product ‘seed rakhi’. The founders then move on to the business side and they mention that their lifetime sales are Rs 45 Crore (2017-present), although with the huge gifting industry in general, the Sharks find their sales numbers to be quite small.
The founders discuss why they haven’t pushed themselves to be better yet and mention why they are doing it now. The Sharks then ask about the frequency of new products that they release and how it can be a problem without new ideas and innovations on a regular basis. The founders discuss how they come up with ideas and how they run their business by focusing on different channels along with why they want an investor.
In the end, Vineeta and Ritesh decide to invest in the brand and the founders agree to the terms, closing the deal with Rs 50 Lakhs for 4% equity in the company.
Next, we get a glimpse of the growth of Rare Planet, a startup that came to Shark Tank in Season 01. Namita, who had invested in the brand in that season, discusses how she is proud that she got her exit so soon and that the company has grown leaps and bounds in the few years since we last saw them.
FuelV
The second startup to come to the Tank is FuelV, headed by two young entrepreneurs who first discuss the growing need to be sure about the amount of fuel that petrol pumps give and mention that 30% of people are cheated almost daily. The numbers surprise the Sharks and the founders discuss the problem of fake bill manipulation and fuel scams that they hoping to tackle. They then introduce their smart fuel cap that can be fit into a 2-wheeler or 4-wheeler easily in order to double-check the correct amount of fuel during fueling. With a vision of tackling such important but everyday problems, the founders ask for Rs 50 Lakhs for 5% equity.
After the pitch, the two founders discuss their backgrounds and how they met. However, one of the founder’s stories of leaving his home to start the business leaves a negative impact on the Sharks, who are unable to understand why he refuses to communicate with his parents or his siblings in any way. Afterwards, they get into the other founder and how their equity in the company is split, before giving a demo of their product and how it works while fueling. The Sharks are impressed with their innovative product and ask them the difference between their product and the flowmeters that are available in the market.
However, the Sharks bring forth their inhibitions when asking the founders why the car companies cannot include this in their cars if it requires much less capital to make. The founders try to put their points across, but the Sharks disagree and mention that with changing times, the government has implemented new methods to put an end to such scamming. The Sharks then question him about how he can manage to invest in his company while also keeping his lodging and food in mind and the founder mentions that he has won many competitions along with working different odd jobs to make ends meet.
After not getting a straight answer from Ha Tade, the Sharks ask Siddharth Madhav to elaborate on the money that they have invested and why they moved to Itanagar. When Tade mentions that he doesn’t know whether his family knows about his move to his hometown, the Sharks are again left annoyed with his dismissive attitude. In the end, all the Sharks opt out of making a deal after citing different reasons.
Rocca
The last startup in the Tank is a gourmet chocolate brand that caters to the different needs of a growing India that wants something new to give their loved ones. The founders discuss the various USPs of their delicious chocolates and where one can find them. Hoping to take their brand worldwide, the founders ask for Rs 60 Lakhs in exchange for 4% equity in the company.
The Sharks first taste the products and then the founders get into how they know each other, their backgrounds and how they realised the gap in chocolate gifting in India which is affordable but has variety as well. They further discuss the difficulties they faced while setting up their factory during COVID-19 and the mistakes that they made along the way. The founders’ fighting spirit impresses the Sharks before they learn about their early funding from different places.
Afterwards, the founders discuss their sales split, how their sales are and how they plan to break through the several brands in the market to make a name for themselves. The founders mention that their taste and indulgence factor is what differentiates them from others before discussing why brands find resistance after a certain amount of sales. The Sharks ask them about Rocca’s price point in comparison to their competitors and ask them about their gross margins and how much they are burning at the moment.
In the end, only Ritesh gives an offer and the founders agree to get into a deal at Rs 30 Lakhs for 25% equity + Rs 30 Lakhs debt at 9% for 3 years.
Shark Tank India Season 3 Episode 46 Review
A colourful episode from start to finish with interesting entrepreneurs pulling out varied reactions from the Sharks. Episode 46, with three innovative companies tackling very different problems in modern India, isn’t just interesting but it’s the entrepreneurs who will truly leave a mark on the viewers. While the young couple of Indigifts leaves your heart warm and fuzzy, the childish and reckless entrepreneurs of FuelV are somewhere cute and immature. Lastly, with delicious chocolates to offer, Rocca’s entrepreneurs have an interesting and inspiring tale of determination and grit to tell, which might push someone watching the show to see their own problems through instead of giving up.
This episode has been a fun and entertaining watch, with a lot of knowledge to gain not only from the Sharks’ questions and perspectives but from the entrepreneurs as well, whose push to strive to do better can inspire anyone.
You can watch the Shark Tank India Season 3 episodes now on SonyLIV.