Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.
Shark Tank judge Mohit Yadav raised Rs 1 cr by mortgaging house, built business worth Rs 2955 cr: ‘Feared my family won’t even have a home’
Shark Tank India Season 5 jude Mohit Yadav recalled raising Rs 1 crore against his home to build his business. His brand Minimalist was valued at Rs 2955 crore in 2025.
Mohit Yadav in a still from Shark Tank India Season 5. (Photo: SonyLIV)
Shark Tank India Season 5 premiered on Monday and on the first episode of the show saw three pitches. One of the entrepreneurs came in with a kids apparel brand named Guugly Wuugly and tried to raise Rs 50 lakh for 5 percent equity in the company, valuing the business at Rs 10 crore. The entrepreneur named Ravi Kumar Gupta walked in with his 5-year-old daughter to present the pitch but as the negotiations began, Ravi impressed the sharks with his humility.
Namita Thapar, Anupam Mittal, Aman Gupta, Kunal Bahl and Mohit Yadav were the ‘sharks’ on the panel for Ravi Gupta’s Guugly Wuugly.
What is Guugly Wuugly?
Ravi Kumar Gupta from Lucknow presented his brand named Guugly Wuugly, which is a kids apparel brand. The business has sold to more than 25,000 customers since they began operations in November 2022. The brand makes clothing for kids between the ages of 1-12 and is marketed using the tagline: ‘From a parent to a parent’.
Ravi explained that he was facing a lot of difficulty finding reasonable and good quality clothing items for his daughter as the affordable ones would be unusable after a few washes, and they found that they couldn’t buy really expensive clothes as their daughter would outgrow them in a few months. He explained that his average selling price was Rs 549, and average order value was Rs 1100. Most of their sales are through their own website, with small percentages allocated to Myntra and FirstCry. After listening to Ravi, sharks realised that he must be operating on a high customer acquisition cost, which turned out to be Rs 550, and he also admitted that he was in loss at the moment.
Pitcher took loans against home, gold jewellery; invested Rs 80-90 lakh
Talking about his numbers on Shark Tank, Ravi explained that in 2022-2023, his revenue was Rs 2.98 lakh with Rs 16,000 profit. In 2023-2024, the revenue was Rs 37 lakh with Rs 1.6 lakh profit. In 2024-2025, the revenue was Rs 92 lakh with profit of Rs 3.3 lakh. And for the first six months of the current financial year, his revenue was Rs 96 lakh, and he was estimating it to be Rs 2-2.5 crore. But, currently his EBITDA was -28 percent, which raised alarm bells for the sharks. Ravi also revealed that he had self funded the entire operation, taken a loan against his home and sold gold jewellery of the family. He had put in Rs 80-90 lakh of his own money into the business.
Mohit Yadav raised Rs 1 crore by mortgaging his home, built Minimalist
After hearing the pitch, Namita Thapar could foresee that the losses will keep increasing and she couldn’t see any USP of the brand. Saying this, she got out. Kunal Bahl suggested that Ravi should cut down his cost so he can have a longer runway for the business. He also got out of the negotiations at this stage.
Aman Gupta said, “Taras aa raha hai aapko dekh ke. Aap sweet ho” and expressed that he wished him well. He also suggested that Ravi should quit this business. At this point, Mohit Yadav, the latest shark to join the show recalled how he too had a kids apparel brand when he first started his entrepreneurial journey. The business did not take off, hence, he had to shut it down. Mohit said that he wondered if he would look like a failure upon quitting the business but realised that it was all in his head, and to start Minimalist, he actually took a loan of Rs 1 crore against his home. “I feared that my family won’t even have a home,” he shared. He also suggested that Ravi should think about other businesses. Anupam Mittal was impressed by the pitcher’s passion but also got out of the negotiation. In January 2025, HUL acquired 90.5 percent stake in Minimalist, valuing it at Rs 2955 crore.
As Ravi was walking out, Aman and Mohit asked Ravi to call them outside the show so they could guide him in branding. They also suggested a few months later, if the business bounces back, they could talk about investing in the business.
- 01
- 02
- 03
- 04
- 05

































