Ankit Uttam wrote a long post on LinkedIn on why Shark Tank India 'never worked for him' and he revealed how the companies operated by the Shark Tank India judges are actually losing money. The author and marketer compared the Indian version to its American equivalent. He went on to say that the sharks aren't credible enough to give business advice to the show's contestants.
Ankit revealed on LinkedIn why he sought to investigate the Indian sharks' financial standings. He stated "Shark Tank India has never worked for me as a show from its first season, unlike its US counterpart. In the US version of the show, every judge is running businesses that actually turn a profit instead of riding on VC money or drowning in huge losses." The judges in the Shark Tank US are Barbara Corcoran, Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, Daymond John, and Kevin O'Leary.
Looking at each judge from season 1, he broke down their earnings for the last two years. He wrote, "Vineeta Singh's SUGAR Cosmetics reported a loss of INR 75 Cr in FY22 up from INR 21.1 Cr in the fiscal year FY21. Ghazal Alagh's Mamaearth for the first time since inception posted a profit for FY22 at INR 14.44 Cr. This is after suffering losses of Rs.1,332 crore in FY21 and ₹428 crores in FY20. Also, the company has reported a 4 crore net profit approx. for the first half of FY23. So the company has just lately begun turning profitable. Also, a recent Mint news report states that they are going for an IPO at a valuation figure of INR 24000 Cr. 24000 Crore when the profits are just 14 crores!!!!!! (shocked face emoji)."
Speaking about the former judge Ashneer Grover, Ankit stated, “BharatPe's total loss stood at ₹5,594 crores in FY 2022. In FY 2021, the company recorded a total loss of ₹2,961 crores. Ashneer Grover was removed in 2022 from the company. So these losses will be also under his leadership since he was also at the helm in FY22. Anupam Mittal is the owner of brands like Shaadi. com, Makaan .com, Mauj Mobile. Except for Shaadi, it seems his other brands are either dead or not making enough money. There is minimal or no news about those in the media. Even Shaadi's financials are NOT known to the public except for one recent report about its future IPO. It may or may not arrive since one such attempt was also made in 2009.”
He went on to say that Namita Thapar was just a part of her company since her father was the CEO. He said, “Peyush Bansal's Lenskart posted a consolidated loss of INR 102.3 Cr in FY22. Enough said! Namita Thapar is NOT the founder of her company Emcure Pharma. It's her father who started it and still is its CEO. So, to some, her credentials may seem similar to that of Ananya Pandey in Bollywood?? (Did somebody hear nepotism!! rolling eyes emoji). Amit Jain's CarDekho posted losses of ₹246.5 crores in the financial year 2021-22.”
The author came to the conclusion that Aman Gupta's BoAt was the only profitable company. He shared, "To me, the Shark Tank India version seems like Ekta Kapoor's rendition of the more interesting US version of the show." Ankit also listed the data sources he used in his research and analysis in a separate second post. Hosted by comedian Rahul Dua, the second season of Shark Tank India airs on Sony TV from Monday to Friday at 9 pm.
