Shark Tank India has found itself mired in controversy amid reports that winning contestants were yet to receive their funds. The revelation came even as the popular show announced plans for a third season and released a promotional video. Meanwhile former show judge Ashneer Grover took a swipe at the other judges, urging the sharks to ‘put the money they planned to invest in an escrow account’.
“In every case, it’s not hard to spot a pre-determined, ill-intentioned narrative with no data or sources to back said claims. It is no surprise, then, that another flimsy controversy is doing the rounds. Again, no data, no real names. Just finger-pointing and in one case, an angry and irrelevant commentator thrown in for added masala,” wrote Shark Anupam Mittal in a lengthy LinkedIn post.
Mittal said that the “single most important piece of data to gauge the integrity of the show is the Completion Ratio”. As he explained, Shark Tank India had seen a completion of two thirds of the deals (he called it a “record of sorts”).
“Shark Tank Season 2 CR will be available in August and based on deal momentum, I am confident it too will be healthy,” he added.
He also issued an open invitation to the unnamed founders, urging them to step forward. “In the exceptional case that you have been wronged, let’s fix that,” he urged.
Mittal also cited three reasons why fund disbursement might be delayed.
“Most of the businesses on the Tank are very early stage. Many are proprietorships, which first need to be registered as Companies. The founders have never seen an SHA, nor do they have readily available numbers. Our teams hand-hold them through many of these issues. As a result, deal completion can take 3 to 9 months depending on the readiness of the Company and the founders,” he explained.
However deals could also fail if the founder changed their minds or if the “company fails legal, financial and/or tax diligence OR the founders do not meet the obligations agreed to while accepting a conditional deal”.
“Some founders like to renegotiate or deal-shop which can also delay completion. Personally, I don’t encourage this but am always open to finding win-win structures as many of my investee cos will attest to,” he added.
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Updated: 28 Jun 2023, 12:40 AM IST