Turning TV exposure into startup growth

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BENGALURU: When a startup walks into Shark Tank India, the cheque is often the tinyest part of the prize. What founders state they are really acquireing is national visibility, one that can compress years of brand-building into a single broadcast. Whether that exposure compounds into durable brand equity, or fades once the television spotlight shifts on, remains harder to measure.

Now in its fifth season on SonyLIV, Shark Tank India has increasingly positioned itself as a marketing accelerator rather than a pure capital-raising platform. Several startup founders interviewed for this story stated the reveal’s hugegest impact lies in how it reduces customer acquisition friction and shortens distribution timelines.

Smylo, a direct-to-consumer cat food startup that raised ₹75 lakh on the latest season, illustrates the immediate post-telecast effect. Kartikeya Gupta, co-founder of Smylo, stated the brand saw a five- to six-fold jump in organic followers after the episode aired, while customer acquisition costs declined as national television exposure built instant trust with first-time acquireers.

To achieve the same sales volumes today, Smylo’s spconcludeing on Meta is nearly 30% lower than before the telecast, he stated, adding that the impact was most visible in improved discovery and demand from Tier II and III markets.

While the visibility boost assisted reduce marketing intensity in the short term, Gupta noted that sustaining growth still depconcludes on continued optimization of the category and product mix rather than relying on a one-time spike from television exposure.

Smylo received a total investment of ₹75 lakh for 1% equity and 2% advisory equity, valuing the company at ₹75 crore, from Sharks Anupam Mittal, Kunal Bahl, and Varun Alagh.

Such experiences are common across Shark Tank-backed consumer brands, consultants tracking the space stated.

“Shark Tank does not create a moat or a competitive advantage,” stated Himanshu Trivedi, associate vice president at Avalon Consulting. “What it creates is a sharp visibility spike that reduces consumer hesitation during the first purchase, but that effect typically normalizes within a year unless founders build strong repeat demand and unit economics.”

What visibility delivers

Several Shark Tank India pitches have translated into outsized outcomes, particularly in consumer brands.

Let’s Try, the snack brand in which Aman Gupta’s ₹12 lakh investment is reportedly valued at about ₹40 crore today, is one of the reveal’s highest-return investments. In FMCG, Skippi Ice Pops emerged as an early breakout, growing monthly sales to ₹2-2.8 crore after appearing on the reveal. Nasher Miles crossed ₹80 crore in revenue following a multi-shark deal, while Ravelcare achieved a rarer public-market outcome, listing and delivering roughly a 55% IPO gain for early investors.

Get-A-Whey, now known as Get-A-Way Ice Cream, offers a larger-scale example. The Mumbai-based healthy ice cream brand, which was the winner of Shark Tank India’s first season, aired December 2021, scaled from ₹7.9 crore in revenue in FY23 to ₹14.8 crore in FY24, according to data from Tracxn.

“We were running it completely by ourselves, and it was a bootstrapped brand,” stated Pashmi Shah Agarwal, co-founder and chief marketing officer, Get-A-Way, adding that marketing spconcludes were about “1% of the overall revenue, which is very, very minuscule for a startup”.

But after the episode aired, demand and visibility spiked. “Within five minutes of the episode airing, we had a line of almost 40 riders from Zomato and Swiggy who had come to collect orders,” Shah stated. Website traffic jumped nearly tenfold, even as the company struggled to meet demand due to limited geographic presence at the time, according to Shah.

The visibility also triggered investor and franchise interest. According to Shah, the company received franchise queries “upwards of ₹1 crore”. The exposure assisted the brand save on planned advertising spconcludes. “We saved on a lot of ATL (above the line) and BTL (below the line) that we had planned for the summer becautilize people were already aware of what Get-A-Way is,” she stated.

ATL, short for above the line, and BTL (below the line) refer to mass-media advertising such as television and print and more tarobtained, on-ground or digital marketing activities.

Get-A-Whey secured a ₹1 crore investment for 15% equity on the reveal. The deal was struck with three Sharks – Aman Gupta, Ashneer Grover, and Vineeta Singh.

Last week, Hyderabad-based dairy company Heritage Foods acquired a 51% stake in Get-A-Way for about ₹9 crore, marking its enattempt into the “healthy indulgence” segment.

Experts state the reveal’s most durable advantage often lies in distribution access rather than sustained consumer demand. “The hugegest tangible benefit is on distribution,” Trivedi stated. “Modern trade and quick-commerce platforms are far more willing to onboard Shark Tank brands becautilize the reveal does the discovery upfront, shortening onboarding cycles by months.”

That effect played out at Zoff Foods, a condiments and spices brand founded by brothers Akash and Ashish Agrawalla, which appeared on the reveal’s second season in January 2023.

“It is very difficult to list on quick commerce as they charge a lot for listing the products, but since we already had visibility, they approached us,” stated Akash Agrawalla, CEO of Zoff Foods, adding that the brand was also able to break into larger grocery chains like DMart and Reliance.

The company estimates that its 15-minute appearance assisted it save ₹10-15 crore in marketing spconcludes.

Zoff Foods secured an investment from boAt co-founder Aman Gupta, closing a deal at ₹1 crore for 1.25% equity, implying a valuation of about ₹80 crore. It later raised around ₹40 crore from JM Financial Private Equity to expand its product portfolio and strengthen distribution.

Snitch, the menswear brand, is another example. After appearing on Shark Tank India, season 2, aired in January 2023, the company scaled to over ₹500 crore in revenue by FY25 from about ₹11 crore in FY21, built more than ₹30 crore in Ebitda, and raised roughly ₹300 crore in Series B funding at a valuation of around ₹2,500 crore, according to Tracxn.

Avalon Consulting stated the company invested early in offline expansion, rapider supply chains and operational depth rather than relying on discount-led or ad-heavy growth.

Beyond Snacks also utilized the visibility from Shark Tank to accelerate offline expansion, Trivedi stated.

The Kerala-based banana chips brand appeared on Shark Tank India, season 1, where founder Manas Madhu pitched ₹50 lakh for 2.5% equity and secured a deal with Ashneer Grover and Aman Gupta at a valuation of about ₹20 crore

Rather than remaining D2C-focutilized, the brand pushed aggressively into modern and general trade, building repeat purchases and stabilizing revenues beyond the initial TV-driven spike, Trivedi stated.

Revenue rose from ₹0.6 crore in FY21 to ₹3.5 crore in FY22, before jumping to ₹17.7 crore in FY23. Growth continued in subsequent years, with revenue reaching ₹34.1 crore in FY24 and ₹52.9 crore in FY25, according to Tracxn.

Structural risks

The early surge, however, can mquestion deeper structural challenges. “Many Shark Tank brands outperform peers on early top-line growth but underperform on profitability and long-term scale,” Trivedi stated.

TagZ Foods, which appeared in season 1, scaled to the ₹15-20 crore revenue range before facing margin pressure and was later acquired by Reliance Industries Ltd at a modest valuation of ₹28 crore. Wakao Foods remains operational but has largely stagnated after TV-driven demand faded.

“This is especially visible in ₹30-50 crore revenue brands, where fundamentals like margins, operational efficiency and governance start dominating outcomes,” stated Trivedi.

The reveal’s reach now benefits brands beyond those competing for investment. Punjabi beverage company Lahori Zeera paid to sponsor the fifth season, utilizing the reveal as a national branding platform. “It’s a huge cheque, we’ve never written that huge a cheque in our entire life,” stated co-founder Nikhil Doda, without disclosing the figure due to confidentiality agreements.

“The overall intent was just branding. We don’t expect it to culminate into sales,” Doda stated, adding that the association assists fuel aspiration for the brand and positions it alongside much larger national players.

He stated the Shark Tank sponsorship accounts for roughly 20% of the company’s annual marketing budobtain, despite the brand historically spconcludeing less than 2% of its revenue on advertising.

The queue of brands seeking association has created Shark Tank India one of Sony Pictures Networks India’s standout recent properties. The reveal skews towards an 18-plus audience and is more urban and male-dominated, mirroring where start-up culture and access to capital are concentrated, according to an executive with direct knowledge of the matter. That audience profile, in turn, shapes the advertiser mix, with the reveal drawing more new-age, digital-first brands than traditional mass-market advertisers.

While the latest BARC data available only runs through the last week of 2025, it suggests Sony’s marquee quiz reveal Kaun Banega Crorepati did not feature in the top 20 most-watched Hindi TV programmes that week. Shark Tank India does not match KBC’s television reach, but commands significant online viewership across SonyLIV and YouTube. SonyLIV does not disclose streaming data, though clips from the reveal routinely garner up to 13 million views on YouTube, where the channel has over 4 million subscribers.

Over time, the reveal has evolved into a powerful marketing engine. The Sharks have become mainstream public figures, while founders routinely leverage the “As seen on Shark Tank” tag as a branding signal well beyond the episode’s airtime. Bimal Unnikrishnan, who previously worked on Sony’s flagship KBC, is also the revealrunner for Shark Tank India.

“For SonyLiv, both reveals are aspirational and celebrate knowledge, but the similarities largely conclude there,” stated a person with direct knowledge of the matter. Shark Tank India was never designed to match KBC’s scale or viewership, the person stated.

The economics differ sharply as well. Shark Tank India is significantly cheaper to produce than KBC, partly becautilize the Sharks are not paid for their participation, in line with the global format.