Anupam Mittal, Shark Tank India judge and the founder-CEO of Shaadi.com, looked back at his investments on Shark Tank India so far. In a recent conversation, he spilled the beans on the returns he’s yielded on some of his investments.
Mittal said at a podcast that initially, people poked fun at founders during the first season of the show but as of now, he is invested in 5 Shark Tank India companies.
He mentioned that all of these companies have an annual revenue run rate of more than ₹50 crore.
Looking back at Shark Tank India season 1, Mittal said: “Let me tell you honestly about the first season, without holding my words, no one wanted to come on Shark Tank. People would make fun of us. Nobody wanted to come, not as sharks, not as founders,” he said.
He further said the very people who looked down took back their words as the show became highly successful. Mittal mentioned that he initially thought people who are not funded by venture capital firms would only come on the show such as family entrepreneurs and mom and pop shops.
Anupam noted that now, everyone has understood that Shark Tank can change the game and now everybody wants to be a ‘shark’ or an investor on the show. He also said that he saw it as “desh sewa” and not an opportunity to make money when the show.
“Previously, I thought that I won’t make any money on Shark Tank because the best companies won’t come here but I told myself that let’s think of it as ‘desh sewa’ so as long as I break-even, maybe it is worth my time. Now, I have five Shark Tank companies in my portfolio that are doing more than Rs 50 crore annual revenue run rate. I never expected that.”
In season 1, Mittal invested around ₹5.4 crore across 24 companies whereas in season 2, he invested in 25 businesses. Details of his investments in season 3 are not publicly available yet. Some of his top investments on the show are Skippi Ice Pops, Sunfox Technologies, CosIQ, Thinkerbell Labs, and InACan.