Listen to this story
As Shark Tank India’s Season 3 wraps up, we look back to assess the surge in AI startups stepping into the tank to pitch their ideas. This was indeed the first time we saw AI startups making an impact on the show. While some secured funding, others were still in their early stages.
Interestingly, only four out of the seven were able to get investment.
The panel featured Aman Gupta from boAt, Ritesh Agarwal of OYO Rooms, Deepinder Goyal of Zomato, Anupam Mittal from Shaadi.com, Namita Thapar of Emcure Pharmaceuticals, and Vineeta Singh from Sugar Cosmetics.
Besides, there was Radhika Gupta of Edelweiss Mutual Fund, Peyush Bansal from Lenskart, Amit Jain of CarDekho, Azhar Iqubal from Inshorts, Varun Dua from ACKO, and Ronnie Screwvala from UpGrad.
Let’s look at the AI startups that featured on Shark Tank India.
Model Verse
Model Verse, founded by IIM Kozhikode graduate Srijan Mehrotra, creates images of models for advertising and catalogs using AI. Srijan said that high quality product images are crucial for marketing, but traditional methods like hiring models can be expensive and time-consuming.
In his pitch, he claimed that the platform can produce professional photos of models, saving brands a lot of money and time. Each image created on his platform costs only INR 35, a tiny fraction of the usual INR 3.5-4 lakh that models charge. Mehrotra developed the tool using PyTorch.
The founder of Shaadi.com, Anupam Mittal, questioned whether Model Verse could be easily replaced by OpenAI’s Dall-E 3 and said that building wrapper-based models on OpenAI’s API has become more feasible nowadays.
Mehrotra claimed that he had built Model Verse from scratch and needed GPUs to scale. He secured a deal from Anupam Mittal, Ritesh Aggarwal, and Amit Jain for INR 25 lakh in exchange for 10% equity.
AI Kavach
AI Kavach by Panoplia.ai, founded by Pratyusha Vemuri, is a platform that offers AI-powered solutions to tackle online fraud. The tool can detect fraudulent websites, calls, apps, and messages. Online fraud is a significant concern for individuals and businesses in India, resulting in substantial financial losses. Till date, the company has detected 200 fake messages and websites.
During her pitch, Vemuri shared her personal story of falling prey to a fraudulent website while purchasing a swing. Before founding AI Kavach, Vemuri served as the head of product identity, security, and privacy at Microsoft.
She claimed that AI Kavach can detect URLs in real time and, with the use of AI, predict whether a website is fraudulent or not. She also added that the algorithm is trained on millions of websites. Her plan is to charge consumers INR 99 per month for the service.
Vemuri secured an INR 1 crore deal from Aman Gupta and Peyush Bansal, offering 5% equity in her company in return.
Beauty GPT
Beauty GPT is a product of Orbo.ai, founded by Abhit Sinha, Manoj Shinde, and Danish Jamil. Similar to a Snapchat filter, BeautyGPT is a virtual makeup simulation which helps users visualise how they would look with makeup on. This includes experimenting with various products such as lipstick, blushes, highlighter, eyeliner, etc.
Using a combination of machine learning algorithms and LLMs, it analyses various data points, including facial attributes, customer demographics (age, skin type, etc.), skin concerns and weather impact (e.g., recommending different moisturizers for dry vs. humid weather).
Personalised recommendations can help customers find the products they need, potentially increasing sales conversions for cosmetic companies. During the Shark Tank pitch, Peyush Bansal offered to buy 51% of the company for INR 15 crore. However, Orbo.ai secured a deal of INR 1 crore for 1% equity from Vineeta Singh.
Ai Cars
The founder of Ai Cars, Harshal Mahadev Nakshane, from Yavatmal, Maharashtra, presented an AI-powered hydrogen fuel cell car prototype. During his Shark Tank pitch, Nakshane said that he built the car in his garage in about 18 months.
Judges Anupam Mittal, Vineeta Singh, and Namita Thapar took a test drive of the vehicle, during which it autonomously made sharp turns and was able to navigate on the road, leaving a strong impression on the judges.
The hydrogen fuel cell-powered AI Car stands out with its rapid 5-minute refueling time and an impressive range exceeding 1,000 kilometers – all achieved with an investment of INR 60 lakh. However, Nakshane didn’t receive funding because the Sharks felt that the product is not scalable and that it would be difficult to compete with established players like Tesla and Google Waymo.
FUTR STUDIOS
FUTR STUDIOS, co-founded by Himanshu Goel and George Tharian, specialises in developing AI influencers for marketing and advertising. Kyra, India’s first AI influencer, is also a product of FUTR Studios. Today, Kyra has more than 2.5 lakh followers on Instagram and has collaborated on campaigns with brands like boAt, Titan, Morris Garages, and more.
FUTR Studios develops high-fidelity, 3D virtual humans that can be used for various applications. They integrate these virtual humans into metaverse platforms, enabling interactive experiences within virtual worlds. The company further plans to build autonomous virtual humans that can think on their own using LLMs.
The company failed to get a deal from the sharks.
upliance.ai
upliance.ai is an AI-powered home appliance company founded by Mahek Mody. upliance.ai’s AI Cooking Assistant comes in the form of a jar with a smart 8-inch screen attached. It can prepare over 500+ dishes, including paneer stir fry, chole masala, steamed rice, and chai, for instance.
The screen comes with the in-built ‘ChefGPT’, which answers all your queries about the recipes and suggests ingredients for the dish. Moreover, it can suggest new recipes based on the ingredients you have at your disposal. Not only does it provide step-by-step instructions while you are cooking, it also enhances your overall cooking experience.
The company wasn’t able to secure funding on the tank. However, the company later secured an investment of INR 34 crore in a seed round at a valuation of INR 143 crore from Khosla Ventures.
Kibo
Kibo by Trestle Labs was one of the unique AI companies pitched on Shark Tank 3. Kibo, which stands for Knowledge in a Box, is an AI-based education tool that converts printed documents, handwritten notes, PDFs, and digital text into audio for listening. This can be particularly beneficial for the visually impaired or those who prefer audio learning.
The brand’s journey started during the engineering days of founders Aksh*ta Sachdeva and Bonny Dave. While in her third year of computer science engineering, Sachdeva worked on a project focused on creating reading and mobility hand gloves for the visually impaired.
The company secured a funding of INR 60 lakh for 6% equity from Peyush Bansal and Ronnie Screwvala.
