The recent episode of Shark Tank India season three featured Sachin Joshi and Uttam Banerjee, founders of Zerodor – a waterless urinal. The two made an impressive pitch and shared that they aim to provide ‘CPR’ – ‘Conserve, Protect and Restore’, to the sanitation system in India with their products.
The founders shared that they have more than 700 clients in India with whom they have installed 30,000 units of waterless urinals since 2013. The two further claimed that the market size for their product was more than Rs 16,000 crores. They then asked for Rs 1 crore from sharks against 3 per cent equity in their company.
However, when asked about their sales and profits, the founders revealed that in 2017-18, they had sales worth Rs 1.96 crore followed by Rs 2.1 crore and Rs 1.6 crore during the lockdown of two years. In 2021 and 2022, they had sales worth Rs 2.1 crore and Rs 2.8 crore. They also revealed their their nett profit last year was Rs 18 lakhs. This left sharks shocked.
Radhika Gupta questioned founders about their low sales and profit and argued that something was not right with their business. She then backed out of the deal. Vineeta Singh also agreed and did not offer a deal to the pitchers. “If you have taken Rs 2 cr from an investor and it is now seven years, surely there is something amiss?" she said. Aman Gupta also backed out.
However, Peyush Bansal agreed to make an offer. He shared that he was willing to give Rs 1 crore but asked the founders to focus only on waterless urinals. The pitchers asked if he could offer 1.5 crore for 10 per cent or 1 crore for 6.5 per cent but Peyush refused. “Ek hi offer hai for this cause and mujhe lagta hai aap yeh kar sakte ho." The founders thanked Peyush for the offer but refused the offer. “That is your choice," Peyush concluded.
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