MUMBAI :
Judges, or so-called ‘Sharks’, who’re a part of the Indian model of the worldwide Shark Tank present, have already funded near 100 entrepreneurs from smaller cities in India, lots of whom are girls. The present might be telecast on weekdays, starting 20 December.
Sony Footage Networks India has acquired the rights to the Indian model of the worldwide enterprise actuality format Shark Tank, which permits budding entrepreneurs to make pitches to judges who, in flip, minimize cheques for a stake within the firm if impressed with the enterprise fashions and founders. Shark Tank India has seven judges.
“Over the previous three months of capturing, the judges have collectively funded near 100 such entrepreneurs,” mentioned Anupam Mittal, one of many ‘Sharks’ on the Indian present, in an interplay with VCCircle. The judges are placing their very own cash, and the typical ticket measurement ranges from just a few lakh rupees to a crore, Mittal added.
Mittal, additionally the founding father of Shaadi.com, identified that whereas many of the funding into the ecosystem sometimes goes to founders who’ve come out of elite universities, the entrepreneurs who seem in Shark Tank India are “people who find themselves not coming from IITs and IIMs”.
“These persons are coming from tier-2 and three cities with very large desires and aspirations. They only don’t have the kind of ‘pedigree’—if you wish to name it that—from an academic standpoint. They didn’t have the entry till now as a result of they’d by no means be capable of attain a VC themselves,” he mentioned.
The judges have screened “hundreds of entrepreneurs” until date, Sony Leisure Tv community executives informed mediapersons on Thursday. And these comprise a really numerous group, the judges informed the media.
“It’s actually heartening to see the variety and the form of entrepreneurs which are approaching the present. The form of entrepreneurs which are getting funded, I can assure you that 95% of those wouldn’t have gotten funding if they’d chased mainstream sources of funding,” mentioned Vineeta Singh, co-founder of SUGAR Cosmetics. She, too, is a decide on the present.
Singh recalled that when she began out as an entrepreneur 15 years in the past, “if you weren’t a male engineer with the final title Bansal, you then couldn’t actually get funding”. However the judges on the present had invested in a various set of founders together with one began by “a 60-year-old lady”, she added.
One other decide, Namita Thapar, who’s government director at IPO-bound Emcure Prescribed drugs, cited a Harvard Enterprise Assessment determine, which mentioned that solely 2.3% of feminine founders get startup funding.
“The variety of girls which have come on Shark Tank as founders, co-founders and who’ve pitched, and walked away with offers, is a really excessive proportion,” Thapar mentioned.
Peeyush Bansal, co-founder at unicorn Lenskart and one of many judges of on the present, mentioned that the viewers will see how companies are getting developed at “each nook and nook of the nation”.
“You hear information solely in regards to the startups that handle to make it large, or in regards to the web companies. However these companies (who make information) needn’t at all times be good. One takeaway for me was the form of issues that persons are fixing… with so little sources. This needs to be one thing new for the viewers as nicely,” he mentioned.
Shanti Mohan, co-founder of angel community Lets Enterprise, added: “I imagine that Shark Tank India is not going to solely encourage extra entrepreneurs and traders but in addition result in a cultural shift in how Indian households understand entrepreneurship as a viable profession alternative.”
ranjani.raghavan@livemint.com
Supply: Live Mint