Proxgy

Pulkit Ahuja (Co-founder & CEO) describes himself as an entrepreneur, author, and inventor the brand custodian and visionary who conceived the "human proxy" concept, evolved it into the industrial smart helmet platform post-Shark Tank, and has driven Proxgy's transformation from a pandemic-era consumer app to a ₹400 crore deep-tech safety company. Inderjit Singh Makkar (Co-founder) is the operational and investor-facing co-founder he is described in the pitch as Pulkit's "investor partner," suggesting that Inderjit brought both commercial investment and operational partnership to the founding.

Proxgy (pronounced "proxy") pitched as a live human avatar platform a service that allowed users to book a trained human proxy (a "Proxgy") equipped with an IoT-enabled smart helmet featuring a stereoscopic 3D camera, 360-degree viewing, and live two-way communication, who would physically go to any location on behalf of the user and transmit a live, immersive experience enabling virtual shopping, virtual travel, virtual property tours, virtual event attendance, and virtual business visits from anywhere in the world.

Amount Asked: ₹35 lakhs Equity Offered: 1% Implied Pre-Money Valuation: ₹35 crore

Proxgy's pitch was the fifth and final of Episode 33 (Finale Week Day 3) closing the episode's Finale Week Day 3 with Season 1's most conceptually futuristic pitch: the ability to be virtually present anywhere in the world through a live human avatar, wearing an IoT smart helmet that streams a real-time, immersive, 3D experience. The live demonstration showing the smart helmet's 3D camera capabilities, the 360-degree view, and the voice command interface gave the Sharks a visceral sense of the technology. Unlike most technology pitches that describe capabilities, Proxgy's demo made the capability directly perceptible. The six patents disclosed during the pitch three times more than most hardware startups at this stage was the most immediately credible IP depth signal. The 25 pending patents communicated a systematic, innovation-pipeline approach to product development that few Season 1 companies demonstrated.

Anupam Mittal exited on valuation grounds. Anupam Mittal expressed reservations and opted out due to concerns about valuation and market potential. Instagram Namita Thapar exited on similar grounds the ₹35 crore implied valuation on ₹1.5 crore revenue (23x multiple) was aggressive for her investment framework. Ashneer Grover, Peyush Bansal, and Aman Gupta saw the futuristic potential. Ashneer Grover, Peyush Bansal, and Aman Gupta saw Proxgy as a futuristic and disruptive opportunity.

Ashneer and Peyush gave an offer of ₹50 lakh for 10% equity of the company. Later Pulkit and Inderjit gave a counteroffer of around ₹50 lakh for 2.5% equity. Later on, again, Ashneer and Peyush gave a counteroffer of ₹1 crore for 10% equity. The negotiation doubled the capital (from ₹50L to ₹1 crore) while maintaining the 10% equity a significant founders' win in absolute capital terms. The founders secured ₹1 crore instead of the ₹35 lakhs they had originally asked for, a 2.86x capital increase, while the Sharks maintained their equity percentage at 10%.

No final deal