And, in value terms, of the Rs 40 crore that these sharks had committed to invest, only 17 crore was invested till July 12, 2023, the analysis revealed.
Shark Tank is a reality television show where entrepreneurs pitch their business models to a panel of investors. It was first conceived and aired in the US.
PrivateCircle Research, a private market intelligence firm analysed filings at the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, updated till July 12, made by the Shark Tank companies to arrive at these findings. The analysis does not include debt.
Season 1 investors included BharatPe founder Ashneer Grover, Lenskart founder Peyush Bansal, Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal, boAt founder Aman Gupta, Mamaearth founder Ghazal Alagh, Sugar Cosmetics founder Vineeta Singh and Emcure Pharmaceuticals chief executive Namita Thapar.
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Among the seven, Thapar fulfilled the maximum percentage – 59 – of investment commitments. She has committed to invest in 22 companies, out of which 13 companies have made investment filings. On the other hand, Mittal had the lowest investment percentage at 29. He invested in 7 out of 24 committed deals.
Notably, six startups from the first season have passed on the Shark Tank deals offered to raise funding at higher valuations from other investors, PrivateCircle Research added in its report.
The fineprint
Individually, Thapar had invested the highest amount of Rs 7 crore whereas Alagh made the lowest investment of Rs 40 lakh. Alagh’s participation in the show was limited to only a couple of episodes.
“Our findings show that some deals committed on the show may have fallen through because of concerns in company due diligence. Also some startups seem to have passed on the Shark Tank deal to raise funding at higher valuations from other investors,” Sumanjan Kumar, lead financial analyst at PrivateCircle, said.
ETtechOverall, 117 startups participated on Shark Tank Season 1 out of which 65 startups got deal commitments. Lenskart raised a notional Re 1 on Shark Tank Season 1, so it is excluded from the count, PrivateCircle added.
Additionally, two rejected companies – Agri Tourism and Jhaji Achaar – got investments from sharks after the completion of theshow. Agri Tourism received an investment of Rs 5 lakh from Thapar in April 2022, while Jhaji Achaar got Rs 30 lakh in a joint investment from Thapar and Singh in September 2022.
On the other hand, 10 companies that did not get a deal in Season 1 managed to raise fresh funding at higher valuations than their original ask on the show. These companies include SweeDesi, KetoIndia, ExperientialEtc, On2Cook, Woloo, Theka Coffee, Aliste Technologies, Good Good Piggy Bank, Anthyesti and Mommy’s Kitchen.
For Shark Tank India Season 2, which ended in March 2023, a total of 166 companies pitched on the show. Of these, 115 secured a deal commitment, but only one of them has made investment filings till now – coffee brand VS Mani & Co.
The dataset has been released in the wake of allegations by some contestants on Shark Tank India that the investors had resorted to delaying tactics when it came to actually putting in money.
Last month, Mittal took to LinkedIn to say that deal completion for investments approved on the reality show can take three to nine months, depending on the readiness of the companies.
Some of the contestants ET spoke to said they had received soft commitments on the show in September 2022. “Normally, it takes 2-3 months to finalise a fundraising transaction, but sharks (investors) purposely drag things out (after the episode is shot) until the pitch airs. They want additional paperwork, their legal team won’t return your calls, and their team members will provide lame excuses like they are on vacation or the new year has arrived,” one such contestant had told ET.
While some founders that ET spoke to said they continue to expect a final word from the investors on the promised funding, others have moved on, writing off the show as just a marketing opportunity.