- Founder: Jasveer Singh, Abhishek Asthana, and Deepak Kumar
- Business: social network
- Ask: ₹ 1.2 Crore for 0.2% Equity
- Valuation: ₹600 Cr.
- Result: ₹ 60 Lakhs for 0.54% Equity and ₹ 60 Lakhs Debt @ 12% Interest
- Sharks: Aman Gupta & Peyush Bansal
- Episode: Season 2 Episode 40
HOOD Shark Tank Pitch:
HOOD is a unique social networking platform that allows users to express themselves anonymously, free from the fear of judgment, with a major focus on freedom of expression. The most popular feature of the app is anonymous groups. All data is end-to-end encrypted. HOOD started as Zorro and then rebranded as HOOD. It made headlines initially when many popular tycoons stood behind the app at its inception.
The app was launched in June 2022, and it reached over 500,000 users in just 45 days with minimal marketing efforts. Their aim is to reach 1 crore (10 million) users in India, and then they plan to focus on their second market, which would be the United States.
They have raised 23 Crores by the time of the pitch, with the last round raising the company’s valuation to 112 Crores in January 2022. The Hood app were still a pre-revenue company, so they haven’t made any money yet. They have over 5,000 groups on the app with over 7.5 lakh (750,000) total users. Their monthly active user count is at 2.4 lakh (240,000), and the daily count comes to 60,000. There are 1,800 new posts posted on the platform regularly.
Hood founders and Sharks Negotiations :
Amit states that the product is not yet market-fit, and he doesn’t see humility in the founders as they don’t seem to know the right numbers. Anupam adds that they are only interested in the market and don’t need a Shark because they already have 20 unicorn founders. He believes their valuation is a joke and that anonymous networks are dead, and no government is going to allow them. He argues there is no use case and decides to pass. Namita says that they need a reality check, and the founders have misconceptions about their value, so she also decides to pass.
Aman enters the scene and mentions that he doesn’t understand the 600 crore valuation, but he wants to invest. Peyush adds that he is also interested in investing but only at the last valuation round. They make an offer of half debt and half equity, which the founders eventually accept.
Now, let’s find out if the Sharks made the right choice by investing.
What happened to HOOD after Shark Tank India?
Our research on the company reveals that the deal with the Sharks closed, and the company is thriving. Shark Tank gave a big boost to the popularity of the app, as it trended in the top 10 apps after their episode aired, and #HoodApp was trending at #1 on Twitter. As of October 2023, HOOD has over 500,000 downloads on the Google Play Store. While the company is still in business, the reviews of the app are not very positive, as it has a 2.6 rating on the Google Play Store. On the iOS side, things look better as the app received a 4/5 rating with 335 total ratings given.”
Interestingly, HOOD is heavily invested by some of the Top CEOs and VCs from india with names like Ashneer grover who despite not being in Season 2 also invested in the platform.
Image source: HOOD app Instagram.
Here are the other companies from Season 2 Episode 40!
Twisting Scoops
Update coming soon!
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