Shark Tank India has returned with its second instalment on Sony Entertainment Television and Sony LIV with the motto “Entrepreneur ki Leher Ek Baar Firse”. Shark Tank India Season 2 episode 4 premiered on January 5, 2023 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.
‘Gear Head Motors’, a brand of e-cycles run by V Sai Meher Krishna & Gunda Nikhil is first team to pitch in for the episode. Manufacturing electric bicycles and tricycles (for specially-abled) staring at only Rs. 24,000, Gear Head’s cycles can travel up to 60 kms with a single charge.
The team’s ask is for Rs. 75 lakhs for 2% equity. Their annual sales till now stand at Rs. 4 crores, with the previous financial year closing in at Rs. crores and last month’s sales coming up to Rs. 50 lakhs with a profit of Rs. 8 lakhs. Peyush is ecstatic to invest in the business, but before that the four different models of cycles are revealed – L,I,F,E, with L starting at Rs. 24,000 and the price picks up for the subsequent ones.
Pros associated with the detachable battery of the cycle are that it has an aluminium casing, hence, it can be cooled down easily. The smaller batteries require 2 hours for them to be fully charged, while the bigger ones need around 3 hours. Promoting their all Indian manufacturing, they’ve set up shop in Hyderabad.
Initially, the amount raised for the business was Rs. 3 crores, but as they discuss more factors, the numbers don’t match with their statistics and gives rise to a clash between the team and the sharks. Anupam raises the issues of miscalculation, and their impulsive claims as the reason for him dropping out of the deal. Namita too calls them out as “trust deficit” once it’s revealed that they have joint business investors who helped them flourish the technology of their product. However, the sister companies haven’t been merged yet.
While one company handles the technology aspect, the other is concerned with the product itself. A joint offer of Rs. 1 crore for 6.67% equity is forwarded by Aman and Peyush on the condition that the companies will be merged as soon as possible and that they as well as Gear Head’s previous investors will held at the same valuation.
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Following the success of the e-cycle pitch, the second team of Vinit Govinda Patil, Geeta Govinda Patil & Darshil Anil Savla walks in, proudly promoting the homely essence of their brand, ‘PatilKaki’, a home-based snacks business. Starting as a door to door endeavour by Kaki herself with a mere amount of Rs. 5000, she then joined forces with her son and his friend to convert the Maharashtrian snack business to an online platform.
Their pitch claims that snack brands are either local-based or branded. The former has no care for hygiene, while the latter is all about using preservatives. To counter such a scenario head-on, ‘PatilKaki’ brings together the wellness of home-style food as well as hygienic maintenance . They’ve now upscaled to 18000 customers, but hope to expand their vision to pan India territories. The team’s ask is for Rs. 40 lakh for 2.5% equity.
At the moment, they’re going ahead with semi automated preparation, and all of their marketing, packaging and branding has been self-created, and the package impresses the sharks tremendously. Aiming to extend their trust factor and homely emotion to other parts of the country, they also hope to bring the goodness of their food to offline stores.
‘PatilKaki’s remaining margin is calculated at 25% after taking all making cost and other aspect into count. Their last year’s sales stood at Rs. 1.3 crores, while the scale projected for this year is Rs. 3 crores. Monthly burns are recorded at Rs. 1.08 lakhs in June, Rs. 2 lakhs in July, which was countered in August with the net profit of Rs. 6.5 lakhs.
The offer is presented by Anupam with Rs. 40 lakhs for 4% equity. Vineeta places one as well with Rs. 40 lakhs for 10% equity, knowing it can’t match the former. Aman goes ahead to offer Rs. 40 lakhs for 5% equity, while Namita stays out of it since she believes that other sharks will be a better help in this domain. Peyush collaborates with Anupam to pitch in the same amount of Rs. 40 lakhs for 4% equity, and the offer is countered by Aman’s similar deal with Rs. 40 lakhs for but 4% equity this time as he hopes to finalise the deal as a solitary player.
The tussle continues for a while, before the team head outside for a brief discussion. Coming back to face the sharks, they go ahead with the joint offer of Anupam and Peyush, and welcome the two sharks onboard.
Finally, the day’s pitches close after the last team ‘Brandsdaddy AFE’, led by Roshaan Vivekanand Mishra & Annkita Roshaan Mishra. The pitch is kicked off by Roshan as he describes the common people’s inability to use fire extinguisher on most accounts. In such scenarios, a small fire can grow out to be a disastrous event. As a means to curb the mishap, the company has manufactured AFE, i.e. the Auto Fire Extinguisher ball, which can be easily used by all age groups. Having been fully manufactured in India, the device has a shelf life of 5 years and is portable.
An ask of Rs. 70 lakhs for 5% equity is extended by the team. Leading with the mantra “kill fire before it kills you”, and functioning mostly on the basis of B2B (business-to-business), Brandsdaddy has supplied to various government organisations, insurance companies and even the fire department.
With monthly sales locked in at Rs. 12 lakhs, they’re launching in Maldives next month and have a gross margin of 60% with a 10% net margin. Their biggest priority right now is to grow out more connections for the B2B model to bring in better results as their operations can tilt towards the expensive side if converted to B2C (business-to-customers).
Namita is the only one to make an offer of Rs. 35 lakhs for 5% equity Rs. 35 lakhs debt at 12% interest. Anupam doesn’t see their business model expanding in the B2C sector either , and his thoughts match with Namita’s words. A counter offer is forwarded by the team, but ultimately Namita’s offer is accepted.
Shark Tank India Season 2 Episode 4: Final Thoughts
The show has finally reeled itself back to its original vision of staying faithful to the pitches. Still, the additional theatrics of backstory VRs have started putting in the quintessential Indian reality TV masala to it as well. As viewers had already pinpointed this aspect earlier by stating that with a better production budget, the show has attempted to reach out to the audience with the usual elements of drama through such tactics, but the audience turned out to be smarter than expected and shunned this from the first day itself.
While these elements break the continuity of the high-paced business pitches, I would like to place my counteroffer (very much pun intended) here as well. Agreeing with every point of criticism that the show has received till now, I also believe that while there’s no need to stretch the drama, to some extent, if the show keeps such elements controlled, it can help the people connect with real-life personalities working behind the pitch as well.
As these brands will be upscaling in the future, it’ll further help the audience, who could soon turn into their respective customers, to also connect with the individuals who’re showing up on TV. The show’s synopsis reduces them down to “pitches”, but backing up their vision with an actual visual aid helps add that personal touch to their stories. Of course, it works only as long as it’s all kept brief and to the point. We don’t need a repeat of the soap-opera-like melodramatic manipulation we’ve all witnessed in Indian Idol or other talent reality shows. The key is to balance both the aspects – the business and the story of the soulful faces behind that business.
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.
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