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Shark Tank India pitcher who got mentorship, grant from Nikhil Kamath, Ankur Warikoo secures deal from Namita Thapar: ‘If a girl at that age…’

Shark Tank India saw two 19-year-old founders securing funding from Namita Thapar for the education led start up Project Clay.

Nikhil Kamath and Ankur Warikoo have provided grants and mentorship to Project Clay, that secured funding on Shark Tank India. (Photo: Nikhil Kamath, Ankur Warikoo/Instagram)

Shark Tank India Season 4, where many entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas, recently saw two 19-year-olds pitch their education start-up idea to the judges. Dyumna Madan and Shivom Sood pitched their business Project Clay as they sought Rs 15 lakh for 10 percent of the company, valued at Rs 1.55 crore. Their business, they said, is an updated model for college counselling for international institutions where college seniors would be providing mentorship to student who aspire to study in the same prestigious colleges.

The pitchers said that they were going for an “elder sibling” approach and claimed that “near-peer mentorship” was their speciality. Dyumna, who impressed the judges, shared that she worked at ed-tech start-ups in Bengaluru and realised that she was meant to be in the same industry. Anupam Mittal was very impressed with the founders as he told them it was a “great pitch.”

The founders revealed that they had split the quit equally and shared that they previously received a grant of Rs 2.5 lakh from Ankur Warikoo. Dyumna said that she also got to the top 3 percent of Nikhil Kamath’s funding programme, and got to a stage where the billionaire gave them a kind of crash course at learning business terminology via some assignments.

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Peyush Bansal acknowledged their efforts and said that the problem they were trying to solve is real and the solution they were offering was also affordable but found some flaws in the business end. Vineeta Singh, Aman Gupta and Anupam Mittal also gave them some feedback and got out of the negotiation. Namita Thapar, who shared that she had been a part of the college admissions process in international colleges because of her children, said that she had had some experience in the field and recognised their efforts, but pointed out that they must be willing to think before reacting hastily.

Namita then offered them the exact deal they wanted and told the other sharks, “If a girl at that age pushes you to think, she’s got something.”

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