Shark Tank Nepal
Companies I backed in the first season of Shark Tank Nepal. Below: the season and the five sharks, each company and its deal, how I decide, and what happens after the handshake.
Season one ran ninety minutes an episode, on Wednesdays and Thursdays. The figures below are season totals for all five sharks.
Season one · all five sharks
Sources: OnlineKhabar, 2 July 2025, and The Kathmandu Post, 21 August 2025.
Season two goes out on Himalaya Television after Dashain 2026, with all five sharks back and about Rs 60 crore in deals.
Cabinet Shrestha
Chairman, Agni Group
Saurabh Jyoti
Padma Jyoti Group
Hem Raj Dhakal
Co-founder, IME Group
Ritu Singh Vaidya
Vaidya’s Organisation / United Traders Syndicate
Anand Bagaria
Nimbus Holdings
One panel each: the founders, the business and the deal. The reasoning behind them has a band of its own: How I decide.
Sandhya Gaire Poudel
Traditional Nepali glass-bead pote necklaces, sold online, with a training centre for women.
Sandhya Gaire Poudel taught herself the craft. She asked for Rs 20 lakh for 35%, and that was the deal, from me alone. Then she asked whether, after three years, she would just give back the 20 lakh.
“20 lakh plus profit, म त ब्यापारी हो नि.”
Sweta Pandey
Nepali meals and snacks for offices, moving into ready-to-eat.
Sweta Pandey started it in 2078 BS with her mother. The ask was Rs 85 lakh for 12%, and she planned about 70% of the money for the ready-to-eat line. The deal was Rs 1 crore for 20%, with four of the five sharks joining as strategic partners.
Palak Jalan & Kushal Goyal
Custom, design-led furniture made in Nepal.
They asked for Rs 1 crore for 6%. The deal was Rs 3 crore for 30%, from three sharks together.
Sabin Karki & Mukul Bhatta
Coding, robotics and AI classes for children.
Kawish Shrestha, Pukar Acharya & Sujeet Regmi
Repair, maintenance and facility services for homes and businesses across Nepal.
They asked for Rs 1.5 crore for 10%. Saurabh Jyoti and I offered the same sum for 15%. The founders countered at 12%, then took the 15%.
Aomashish Karki
A water bottle with a wireless power bank built in.
He asked for Rs 16 lakh for 20%. Two offers came: one from Saurabh Jyoti and me, and a rival from Ritu Singh Vaidya, Hem Raj Dhakal and Anand Bagaria. The deal was our counter, Rs 40 lakh for 40%.
Raunak Khanal
Print on demand, for Nepali digital artists to sell their work.
He asked for Rs 25 lakh for 25%, and I offered exactly that. Hem Raj Dhakal and Anand Bagaria then offered Rs 50 lakh for 50%, with a way for him to buy their share back later. The three closed together at Rs 50 lakh for 50%.
Saloni Raj Bhandari
Hair and skincare, handmade.
She asked for Rs 1 crore for 14%; the deal was Rs 1.5 crore for 50%. At the end of February 2026 Lali opened a flagship store on Durbar Marg, with me among the people behind it.
Saathi Sanitary Pads
Sanitary pads made in Nepal
Rs 50 lakh for 40%
All five of us
Neel Orthotics
Custom orthotics
Rs 60 lakh for 30%
Me, with Hem Raj Dhakal and Saurabh Jyoti
Jay Deurali Krishi Farm
Kiwi wine, from a family farm in Pokhara
Rs 50 lakh for 30%, with an exit policy
Me, alone
GoodWish Engineering
Robotics and automation for offices
Rs 2 crore for 25%
All five of us
Bihe Nepal
A matrimonial app
Rs 1,000 for 1%, a symbolic stake
All five of us, 0.2% each
Lemon Grass Production
Clean Bird car and bike wash
Rs 1 crore for 20%
All five of us
VayuDrishti
Air purification and pollution monitoring
Rs 1 crore for 40%
All five of us
Sabarat Agro Farm
An agri-based drinks brand
Rs 60 lakh for 20%
Me, with Saurabh Jyoti
Harilo Agro Industry
Organic Nepali food products
Rs 2 crore for 25%
Me, alone
Shark Tank is an accelerator programme. It’s not only the investment.
“If he listens early, a lot of the problems that we’ve gone through, he might not have to go through the same problem again.”
“It’s not only the investment. The person has many other different places where he can raise money or get a loan or invest.” What also matters is how receptive they’ll be to our experience. We don’t only use our own expertise; we bring in expertise from outside too. And at the stakes we take, the founder runs the company. We’re there to support.
The idea and the innovative part were already there. I looked a lot at the person as a person: how honest they seemed, how transparent they were with the pitch. “The trust has to be built up for me personally.”
It’s a myth that we’re briefed on the pitchers: the first time we meet an entrepreneur is when they walk through the Shark Tank door. At most, we were sometimes told the ask.
After the money, the main thing is the MIS. If you track it, it happens. If you don’t track it, it doesn’t.
Two of the deals I made alone sit above that range: 35% of Sandhya Pote House and 50% of Lali.
When we spoke about the season, the deals were still in due diligence.
Away from the tank, the focus is the deals we’ve done: getting them in order, and helping with branding, marketing and scaling up. “If we can do a little bit beyond the normal… I think it would really motivate those guys.”
My learning was how disconnected we are from the young, from Gen Z: their ideas, their way of thinking. We don’t get to interact much outside. If you met them, they wouldn’t start talking about business. “The way they think, super smart ideas… And we were not at all aware of those things.”
“We’ve learned a lot about markets that we have no expertise in.”