Plus Gold

Veer Mishra and Raj Parekh are two close friends who worked together in retail for 8 years before founding Plus Gold. Their founding moment came from a deeply personal observation: they wanted to create an app their mothers could use for hassle-free gold and jewellery savings. They spoke with more than 3,000 women within two months and discovered that few fintech companies had ever targeted Indian homemakers for gold savings benefits.They left their jobs and registered Finshakti Solutions in May 2022. The product development journey was exceptionally iterative: they developed the Plus Gold MVP three times in 18 months, pivoting repeatedly to achieve viable product-market fit and consumer trust. Their philosophy: failing fast and pivoting early is the way to build a solid business foundation.

Plus Gold was India's most consumer-friendly digital gold savings platform, designed to democratise gold investment by converting the traditional unstructured Indian gold savings habit (saving cash in a drawer for months before a jeweller visit) into a structured, transparent, digitally tracked savings journey with guaranteed returns and jeweller partner redemptions. The 350 plus jeweller partners across 500 plus cities gave Plus Gold the most geographically distributed redemption network available, ensuring that savings could be converted into physical jewellery at a local trusted jeweller rather than relying on impersonal online delivery. Every jeweller partner underwent stringent screening for guaranteed asset quality.

Amount Asked: ₹60 lakhs Equity Offered: 1% Implied Pre-Money Valuation: ₹60 crore

Veer and Raj walked into Season 3 Episode 25 as the episode's most fintech-specific founders. This episode marked the first appearance of new guest Shark Varun Dua (Acko Insurance founder), who provided expert insights on fintech challenges from the opening pitch. The founders presented Plus Gold's savings app, demonstrating how users could save any amount monthly, track gold prices in real time, and redeem savings as cash or jewellery. They highlighted the 20,000 plus users, ₹45 lakhs in total savings, and the month-on-month growth trajectory: ₹5 lakhs first month, ₹10 lakhs second month, ₹32 lakhs in November, ₹50 lakhs projected for December.

Anupam Mittal was the first to exit, citing he did not have a clear understanding of the business model or revenue streams. Vineeta Singh exited stating the founders lacked judgment because they had invested funds in a risky NBFC structure. She could not trust the founders' financial decision-making capability. Radhika Gupta (guest Shark) felt there was no strong use case for the product. She could not see why consumers would choose Plus Gold over existing digital gold platforms (Paytm Gold, PhonePe Gold, Google Pay Gold). Aman Gupta exited because he was not sure the product had achieved market fit yet. Varun Dua (guest Shark) provided expert fintech guidance, warning about the historical challenges of NBFC-type platforms and the capital intensity of gold financial services. He did not formally invest on-air but subsequently invested as an angel investor outside the show.

No formal on-show deal was documented in available sources. Four Sharks (Anupam, Vineeta, Radhika, Aman) exited explicitly. Varun Dua provided strategic mentorship during the pitch but a confirmed on-show equity deal is not clearly recorded. Plus Gold subsequently raised ₹7 crore from Venture Catalysts, JITO, Signal Ventures, and WFC, with Varun Dua investing as an angel investor, bringing total capital raised to over $1.2 million.

Veer Mishra and Raj Parekh left Shark Tank India Season 3 Episode 25 without a confirmed on-show investment deal. Four Sharks explicitly exited, each citing specific concerns about business model clarity, financial judgment, use case differentiation, and product-market fit. The company subsequently raised capital from institutional investors outside the show, but the Shark Tank appearance provided the visibility catalyst that accelerated their fundraising journey.

About a year after featuring on Shark Tank India, digital gold savings startup Plus Gold wound up operations. After raising over $1.2 million from notable VC firms and angel investors like Acko's Varun Dua, the startup ceased its operations due to an inability to secure further capital, its co-founder and ex-CEO Veer Mishra told Inc42. "Despite strong user traction and early-stage success, the company faced a prolonged funding winter, and sustaining high operating costs without fresh capital became untenable," Veer Mishra said. Before the shutdown, Plus Gold had achieved significant milestones: 200,000 plus app downloads, 400% month-on-month transaction growth, 350 plus jeweller partners across 500 plus cities, actor Sonakshi Sinha onboarded as both investor and brand ambassador, and plans for a gold loans pilot. A representative from Venture Catalysts, one of the company's investors, explained that the startup's financial model "failed to develop sufficient strength to support long-term growth."