- Founders: Mohit Sharma and Mahek Mody
- Business: Cooking Assistant Appliance
- Ask: ₹1 Crore for 1% Equity
- Valuation/ Networth: ₹100 Crores
- Funding: No Deal
- Sharks: No Deal
- Episode: Season 3 Episode 8
Upliance.ai Shark Tank India Pitch:
Upliance has developed a cooking device capable of preparing various dishes. The device features a heating element and sensors that facilitate the cooking of over 500 recipes. All cooking is performed in a smart jar, which also functions as a mixer. It is a patented technology.
The device is equipped with an AI chatbox that can interact in multiple languages. Additionally, it includes a screen where you can choose a recipe, and it will display all the ingredients. The device also incorporates a small weighing machine to calculate the weight of ingredients. Beta testing was conducted on 100-150 Upliance devices. Feedback is being collected through two methods: a rating system and an owner community that informs the company about their preferences.
Upliance.ai Financials during Shark Tank India:
Upliance.ai has 700 paying customers. They sell one machine at ₹19,999, and surprisingly, the cost to make one machine is ₹29,000. This cost is for the pre-production batch, and they anticipate a decrease to ₹15,000 in the next 4 months and a further reduction to ₹9,500 in the future. In 2022, they raised ₹12 crores with a CCPS valuation ranging from ₹49 to ₹78 crores. They currently have ₹5 crores in the bank and incur a monthly burn of ₹30 lakhs.
Who are founder of Uppliance.ai?
Uppliance.ai is founded by Mohit Sharma and Mahek Mody. Both founder are graduate from IT Bombay in 2011.
Who are competitor of Upliance.ai?
Thermix is an international brand that produces semi-automatic cooking machines. The retail cost of their machine is ₹1.3 lakhs, and they generate ₹3 billion euros in revenue annually. In India, there are two other brands: Instant Pot, whose machine retails at ₹9,500, and Geek Robocook, with a machine price range of ₹9,000 to ₹12,000. Together, they achieve a combined monthly sales volume of ₹4,000 to ₹5,000 units.
Upliance.ai Shark Tank India Negotiations & Funding:
Namita was the first shark to opt out as she did not like the taste of the demo dish and also raised concerns about selling only 700 devices in 2 1/2 years, resulting in losses and a valuation that didn’t make sense. Anupam believes the current market is for commercial establishments, and it may take 10 years to penetrate the residential market. He thinks India is not ready for this, and for these reasons, he wants to withdraw from the negotiation.
Azhar Iqubal is a little disappointed with the product because it’s not fully automatic, and he doesn’t see the scalability of the product in the Indian market. Amit also chooses to opt out due to the uncertainty of scalability and the market size of the product.
Peyush takes a bet on the founder and offers ₹10 lakhs for 0.5% equity + ₹90 lakhs debt at 14% interest for 2 years. Upliance.ai requests to match the last valuation of ₹80 crores. Peyush also chooses to withdraw from the negotiation due to the higher valuations.
How is Upliance.ai doing after Shark Tank India?
No deal was offered on the Shark Tank show. They are still in business and have a significant following on Instagram, boasting 4.7K followers. We will update this article within the next couple of months to provide information on how the business is faring and report on the revenue post the show.
After their episode Aired, In February 2024, The company shared through their youtube channel that they had just raised a seed round at ₹143 Crore valuation where they raised ₹34 Crores from Silicon Valley Investment giants Khosla Ventures.
You can checkout their products by clicking the Amazon button below!
Source: Instagram @upliance.ai
Here is an update on other companies from Season 3