The Shark Tank CocoFit pitch was a unique one in the sense that the founders were looking less for money and more for the expertise of the Sharks to help grow their brand. The response that the pitch got from Sharks was also unique in the sense that two of them were very upfront in rejecting the offer and three of them were willing to get onboard with the founders.
In the piece, I will walk you through what is the vision of cocofit, the cocofit shark tank pitch and also share updates about what is going on with CocoFit post the Shark Tank Appearance.
Vision of CocoFit:
The idea behind the founding of CocoFit is simple yet could be revolutionary. The Coconut industry in India is an unorganized market. Due to its unorganized nature, the industry scores low on the subject of hygiene. Another problem faced by the coconut industry is difficulty transporting coconuts due to its size and weight. Due to these inefficiencies, Health conscious consumers are left with the option of only drinking fresh fruit juices, but there have been reports of mixing water in fruit juices, diluting those as well.
To solve all these problems, Sasi Kanth Visinigiri ( CEO), Sunil Kumar Tentu (COO) and Pawan Kumar Seepana (Director) came up with the idea of CocoFit. Using coconut as the base item, the Cocofit brand creates multiple products like coconut coolers, coconut shakes, coconut smoothies, coconut sodas, coconut slush, coconut ice cream, coconut signature and coconut waffles.
CocoFit Shark Tank Pitch & Deal
CocoFit’s Shark Tank pitch began with highlighting the need of the product, a matter we have already seen in the explanation of the vision of CocoFit. After that, the founders mentioned that they were seeking Rs 5 for an equity of 5% in the company. On hearing this, the sharks were surprised as this would mean the founders were valuing the company at Rs 100.
The founders then proceeded to explain that CocoFit was started in 2019, and it had grown to having 31 outlets in 7 different Indian states despite the pandemic. The reason that the founders wanted to get Sharks on board was because they wanted to leverage their expertise in scaling globally as Cocofit has already got inquiries for purchasing its franchises outside India.
To get a better understanding of the CocoFit offering, Sharks were given drinks to taste and they found them to be amazing. After that, the founders began explaining the economics of the business. At the time of the pitch, the founders had made 3.1 crores revenue, gross profit was 2.4 crores and net profit was 2.1 crores.
Surprised once again, the Sharks asked how was this even possible but the CocoFit founders explained that they were selling franchises under the concept of master franchise, and they had already sold two of them. When these master franchises sell unit franchises, the founders also get 50% of the profit. And each state could have one master franchise who would be responsible for selling in that state.
On hearing this explanation, the Sharks realized that CocoFit was not a product business but a franchising business. And they also highlighted that if the franchises would not be able to make a profit, they would come and knock on the door of the founders.
On being asked by Aman what the background history of the founders was, they informed that they were working professionals. When the Sharks heard this, Ashneer and Peyush Bansal pulled out of the deal as they saw founders working other jobs and not concentrating on the business as a lack of confidence in the business on part of the founders.
However, Aman, Anupam and Namita were of the opinion that non-profitable franchises could be helped by returning money from profit making franchises, and the business could continue. So, all three of them decided to come together and invest in the business.
What Happened to CocoFit After Shark Tank
Almost a year after the Shark Tank Pitch, CocoFit is in operation. It seems to be running well if we were to purely judge from its social media presence. In Dec 2022, CocoFit also made an announcement that it would be expanding to US.
