Shark Tank India has returned with its second instalment on Sony Entertainment Television and Sony LIV. Shark Tank India Season 2 episode 18 titled “Business Ideas With Potential” premiered on January 25, 2023 during the 10-11PM IST time slot. Payel Seth is the show’s creative director, while it’s been produced by Studio NEXT, with Ravikesh Vatsa as its writer.

The show is hosted by comedian Rahul Dua, and graced by six judges, better known as sharks – Anupam Mittal Founder-CEO of Shaadi.com – People Group; Aman Gupta, Co-Founder-CMO of boAt; Namita Thapar, Executive Director of Emcure Pharmaceuticals; Vineeta Singh, Co-Founder-CEO of SUGAR Cosmetics; Peyush Bansal, Founder-CEO of Lenskart.com and Amit Jain, Co-Founder-CEO of CarDekho Group and InsuranceDekho.com.

-Shark Tank India Season 2 Episode 18 Recap Contains Spoilers-

The first pitch of the day is about securing a brand solutions for the unorganised street food sector and safeguard it by building a healthy ecosystem through ‘Raasa’, founded by Manik Sehgal.

Thereafter, Swostik Dash, Ashish Sharma and Siddarth Daga present the pitch for ‘Neomotion’, a customizable motorized outdoor mobility system that assists elderly and the disabled. The trio ask the sharks to invest Rs. 1 crore for 1% equity in their company.

Following a heartwarming personal narrative exemplifying the positives of the system, the business talks come into play. From the get-go, Anupam rules it out as excessively expensive and unattainable for the common man. The team conveys that IIT Madras Incubation Cell has passed them their grant. Peyush goes ahead and tries the motorised vehicle it and appreciates the model, but again the high rates oppose their cause and vision. Anupam tries to convince them to bring the rate down to Rs. 25,000, and eventually offers them a deal of Rs. 50 lakhs for 4% and Rs. 50 lakhs debt.

Amit wants to give them a deal as well, but contingent on the figures that the company maintains its profit at 5%. Since the condition and other similar talks can’t hold out, he moves out. Namita offers to join Anupam’s deal owing to her being passionate for the cause and her connection in the market sphere as well. In hopes of growing out their business, the two revise the deal to Rs. 1 crore for 5% equity, but ‘NeoMotion’ has no room to budge from their original offer.

This leads Anupam to revising his deal once again and Peyush brings down the equity in his offer to 2.5% while offering Rs. 1 crore. The team turns away from anything an everything that doesn’t match their pitch, which leads Anupam to think that the founders are too inflexible despite the empathetic cause they’re leading with. He eventually backs out of the matter, but Peyush adjust as per their demands with the condition that Peyush will receive 5% of profits till he receives Rs. crore which will be donated, and the deal is sealed there and then.

Next to come up with a finger-licking pitch on stage are Dhivya Subburaju, Parimal Kalikar, the developing founders of ‘Licksters’, India’s first premium popsicle and ice cream brand with the highest fruit concentration and no-artificial chemicals. With more than 80% fruit in their popsicles, they offer a wide of variety of eatable like vegan bars, greek yogurt bars, ice cream bars and a lot more with the availability of sugar free options as well.

While the band started off with a mere number of flavours that could be counted on one hand, they’ve now branched out to a range of 30 flavours, all of which were first developed personally by the couple. Their team hopes for the sharks to invest Rs. 50 lakhs against 5% equity in their company.

The inevitable tasting session commences, with Aman leading the charge of critique, claiming that he can’t sense any difference in their chocolate bar as compared to the regular options available in the market. Parimal Kalikar confirms that it’s one of their decadent options which follows the norm. As the price is revealed to be Rs. 140 per bar, both Aman and Amit exclaim about the pricey range.

Anupam, however, is confused about the branding and the logo design, which ensures an awkward conversation around the “suggestive” meaning of licking. Business number start talking eventually as the couple sheds light on the gross margin acquired by their own stores to be 70-72%, while franchises have garnered 50%. As the situation starts slipping away from the founders, they try their all to persuade Peyush about their quality care by bringing in the name of Lenskart into the conversation.

However, he already has his mind set on not forming any deal because of his prior investment in a fellow popsicle brand Skippi, which was featured in last year’s Shark Tank India. Namita claims that she’d happy to be their customer, but she can’t side with them as an investor after looking at the prices. Aman too, lists out three reasons as to why he won’t fund their brand – pricing, potential and that “they need Peyush”, but as mentioned earlier, he’d made up his mind.

When all seems lost, ‘Licksters’ try to pull Amit into their corner by once again playing on the personal notes of the CarDekho brand, which generates some laughter among the other sharks. Despite having claimed that he didn’t really like the product, Amit is convinced by their persuasions and offer them Rs. 25 lakhs for 5% equity and Rs. 25 lakhs debt. It’s happily accepted by the team and Amit mentors them to keep up with their persistence in the future too.

The last pitch of the day may raise quite a few eyebrows, and lead many to settle in a facepalming posture as a result of a thousands thoughts coalescing your mind. Sahill Shaha’s ‘Sayonara’ manufactures easy-to-use petticoats for women and seeks to solve a ton of problems faced by women while wearing the garment, as is claimed by the founder.

Requesting an investment of Rs. 1 crore against 10% equity, and in the hopes of filing a patent in the near future, Shaha’s aim is to “revolutionise” the use of petticoats. The demonstration piques quite an interest form the audience as the founder highlights that his adjustments in the garment allow for it to be pulled up and put on one’s sleeves, making room for a “Hands free” situation that will also allow the customer to use their phone easily.

Aman can’t stop giggling throughout the pitch, nor can Peyush so he simply shield his face by his file. As ca be expected the business is still in its prototype stage, and Namita’s sound critique shuns its aside in the calmest way possible. She talks about how this style can easily be copied by the viewers of the show, rendering his efforts redundant. Amit can’t seem to side with the business either for the same reasons.

Aman tries to push a taste of reality ahead by stating that Shaha should forget about this concept and move on to something different. Peyush’s ask is related to the change in the brand’s logo, if not anything else. Anupam can’t envision this as a investible business either and with that, all pitches of the day come to a close with the sharks chanting ‘Sayonara’ i.e. goodbye.

Shark Tank India Season 2 Episode 18 Final Thoughts

During the ‘Licksters’ pitch, Amit claps back on Peyush’s claim about his “conflict of interest” due to a prior investment in a similar brand ‘Skippi’. There’s no doubt that those particular words have already been consuming the minds of the audience ever since the ‘Recode’ fiasco during one of the initial episodes of this season. We’ve all been wondering as to why even would the shark be seated in these roles if they can’t work out their issues due to a “rival” company making it on the show. However, Amit’s remarks hit a bit too close to home in this episode, almost as if the writers had taken a note from the audience critique book.

Once again, it felt like a calculated tactic was enrolled to incite reactions out of the sharks, reminding us day by day that such fights are not what we’re here for even though they too joke about the same matter. Also, I don’t if only I’m noticing this, but every time a supposed “suggestive” remarks has been made on the show, all sharks are seen turning towards Anupam with an amusing grimace shining on their faces. Whatever his intentions may be, it comes off as very demeaning to the business image, and this isn’t the first time something like this has happened.

Coming down to the last infamous act pulled during this episode. While I had no intentions of siding with the Indian Idol resemblance accusation, this episode has left me with no choice but to side along with them. The last and surprisingly the fourth pitch of the day, especially since each episode presents only three pitches, seemed set another cheap grab for laughs similar to the comic relief acts planted on the singing reality show. It was completely out of place and sorts, and I really wish the writers of the show would stop pulling such antics.

Check out the respective websites of the businesses we met today: ‘Raasa‘, ‘NeoMotion‘, and ‘Licksters‘.

Shark Tank India Season 2 episodes will bet broadcasted on Sony Entertainment Television and live-streamed on Sony LIV from Monday to Friday at 10 PM IST.

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