Journey Of The Companies Founded By Shark Tank India Judges, It’s Revenues, Profits Etc.

Who doesn’t know about Shark Tank India these days? After the reality show’s first season turned out to be an epic hit, the second season has come back with new surprises. Shark Tank is a great show for Indian entrepreneurs to avail funds and guidance from some of the most prominent entrepreneurs in the country.

The ‘Sharks’, as the judges are called, usually ask the participant startup founders about their journey, revenues, profits, etc. on the show. Have you ever wondered the same questions about the judges? If you have, then here are the answers to those questions.

Here’s everything you need to know about the companies founded by the Shark Tank judges: 

1. People Group by Anupam Mittal

Before Anupam Mittal started People Group, which created businesses like Shaadi.com, and Makaan.com, he used to work at MicroStrategy for four years.

How did Shaadi.com get started?

Everyone has heard of Shaadi.com. It is one of the most prominent wings of the People Group. The idea for the venture was all figured out by Anupam Mittal in 1996. As an experiment, he started Sagaai.com in 1997. He put all his resources into making this venture work in 2001 and also changed the name to Shaadi.com from Sagaai.com.

Shaadi.com’s funding

Shaadi.com raised $8 million from Sequoia Capital in March 2006 in an unknown funding round. Anupam Mittal had also started Mauj.com by then and raised $20 million.
Although their profit is unknown Anupam Mittal, in an interview last year, said that the business is profitable and they are planning to go for an IPO (Initial Public Offering) by the next financial year.

Thanks to Shark Tank India, Anupam Mittal become a household name and he has invested in several businesses like Ola, InstaLively, Druva, PrettySecrets, etc. He has appeared in both seasons of the show. In Shark Tank India Season 2, he has invested over ₹3.18 crores in various other businesses.

2. boAt by Aman Gupta

Aman Gupta is one of the first-generation entrepreneurs on the show. He started boAt in 2016, which is now India’s no. 1 earwear audio brand. Also after 2020, it hit a new milestone, boAt has become the 5th largest earwear audio brand globally.

How did boAt get started?

After working as an Assistant Manager at Citi Group for two years, Aman Gupta ventured into different organizations in different roles thereafter. He even started a Telemedia and a Marketing company. He founded boAt with Sameer Mehta, a lifestyle brand, in 2016. The brand, boAt, was a bootstrapped startup, which the founders started with a capital of around ₹30 lakhs.

boAt funding

boAt is currently valued at $1.4 billion, after a Series C funding of ~$60 million which is approximately around ₹500 crores. It has had total funding of around $116.3 million to date from Qualcomm Ventures, Innoven capital, Warburg Pincus, and Fireside Ventures, among others.
According to YourStory, the company has reported its revenue from operations of ₹2,873 crore for the fiscal year 2022, with a profit of ₹68.70 crores.

After appearing as a judge in both seasons of Shark Tank India he has become quite popular among the masses. Aman Gupta has invested in several companies like Licious, Shiprocket, Stage, etc. Aman Gupta has invested around ₹5.17 crores in the first three weeks of the second season itself which is also the second highest this season.

3. Emcure Pharmaceuticals by Namita Thapar

We doubt that there’s anybody who doesn’t know about Emcure Pharmaceuticals. Namita Thapar is the Executive Director of Emcure Pharmaceuticals. The company was founded by her father, Satish Mehta, in 1981.

Journey of Namita Thapar with Emcure

Namita Thapar went for an MBA from Fuqua School of Business after she completed her Chartered Accountancy. She worked for 6 years at Guidant Corporation in the USA, before she decided to come back to India and grow her family business. She joined as the CFO of Emcure and subsequently became the Executive Director of the company. She manages Emcure’s India Business which is its largest business unit.

She also leads an education company, Incredible Ventures Ltd, that teaches entrepreneurship to interested 11 -18-year-olds.

Emcure’s funding

Back in 1981, Satish Mehta started Emcure Pharmaceuticals with a loan of ₹3 lakhs, and today the company is valued at around ₹5,000 crores. In the financial year 2021, Emcure locked a revenue of ₹6,091.8 crores and earned a net income of ₹418.6 crores.

Namita Thapar has invested the most, around ₹7.32 crores, in this season till now. She has also become a household name after appearing as a judge in both seasons of Shark Tank India.

4. CarDekho by Amit Jain

The newest judge in Shark Tank India is Amit Jain. Before he started his first venture he worked for a year at TCS as a Software Engineer and then in several roles at Trilogy for almost 7 years.

How did CarDekho get started?

The Jain brother duo, Amit Jain and Anurag Jain, started GirnarSoft in 2007. After a year, they started another venture together, CarDekho, under GirnarSoft’s umbrella, which has now become a Unicorn.

CarDekho’s Funding & Profit

CarDekho is a Unicorn with a valuation of $1.2 billion. As of the financial year 2021, the company has earned a revenue of around ₹884.4 crores. It has received a total funding of $497.5 million across 9 funding rounds. Sequoia Capital, HDFC Bank, LeapFrog Investments, etc. are among their prominent investors. For FY22, CarDekho has suffered losses of around ₹246 crores.

Although he appeared pretty late in Shark Tank, he has invested around ₹2.36 crores by the end of three weeks.

5. Lenskart by Peyush Bansal

One of the most loved judges on Shark Tank India is Peyush Bansal. After he completed his Engineering from McGill University, he started his journey as a Program Manager at Microsoft.

How did Lenskart get started?

Lenskart is a name known to all. Though Peyush Bansal started five companies apart from Lenskart, it was the eyewear retail chain that actually became a huge success for him. Peyush Bansal started Lenskart in 2010 after he completed his Master’s degree from IIM Bangalore. In October 2020, he co-founded Lenskart Vision Fund.

In 2021, he also started Lenskart Foundation, to eradicate refractive error-based blindness from every nook and cranny of the country and also provides free eye care to underprivileged children.

Lenskart funding

As of December 2022, Lenskart has raised about $980 million from investors like Avendus Future Leaders Fund II, Alpha Wave Ventures, and Epiq Capital. Lenskart’s revenue for the financial year 2022 was around ₹1,618.30 crores, with a consolidated loss of ₹102.3 crores.

Peyush Bansal’s investments have always been somewhat social-driven. He won everyone’s hearts when he invested in Jugaadu Kamlesh‘s invention. He has also invested in companies like Dailyobjects, Infeedo, Shiprocket, etc. He invested around ₹4.8 crores by the end of the third week of Shark Tank India Season 2.

6. Sugar Cosmetics by Vineeta Singh

Vineeta Singh has always wanted to be an entrepreneur. She rejected a placement offer of ₹1 crore per annum from a global investment bank after she completed her MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, to start her own HR services.

How did Sugar Cosmetics get started?

Though her first startup didn’t work out well, she started two successful businesses namely Fab Bag in April 2012 and Sugar Cosmetics in July 2015.

Sugar Cosmetics funding

In 2022, Sugar Cosmetics raised $50 million in Series D funding at a valuation of $500 million. This round was led by the Asia fund of L Catterton and existing investors included Elevation Capital, A91 Partners, and India Quotient. It has raised almost $100 million in aggregate so far.

Vineeta Singh’s investment

Since she has appeared in both seasons of Shark Tank India 2, most of her investments are in the startups appearing on the show. Vineeta Singh has also invested in several startups like JoshTalk, JhaJi Store, GetAWhey, etc. Vineeta Singh has invested around ₹2.95 crores by the end of the third week of Shark Tank India Season 2.