Rare Planet

Ranodeep Saha (Co-founder & Director) is the brand visionary and product curation lead — the person who identified the artisan distribution gap, built the initial kulhad product line, and developed the cultural curation framework that makes every Rare Planet product a piece of India's living craft heritage. His IIT background (computer science) gives him the analytical and systems-thinking capability to build a scalable supply chain connecting rural artisan clusters to premium urban retail channels. Vijay Kumar TR (Co-founder & Director) is the retail operations and distribution expert — a decade of airport retail experience that gave him the precise understanding of high-footfall luxury retail mechanics, the relationships with airport retail authorities, and the commercial model knowledge needed to build India's largest airport handicraft brand. Vijay worked in airport retail for 10 years and that's why Ranodeep invited him to join his venture as Vijay has a better understanding.

Rare Planet is India's largest artisan-led retail lifestyle brand — curating, branding, and distributing hand-painted and handcrafted Indian traditional products (terracotta kulhads, copper bottles, ceramic mugs, brass décor, wooden crafts, marble products, stationery, and jewellery) made by rural artisans across India, through premium airport retail stores, online platforms, bookstores, and corporate gifting channels — simultaneously building a consumer lifestyle brand and a sustainable employment ecosystem for India's 70 lakh+ artisan community.

Amount Asked: ₹65 lakhs Equity Offered: 1% Implied Pre-Money Valuation: ₹65 crore

Rare Planet's pitch was the third and final of Episode 26 — closing the episode after Isak's heritage fragrance deal and Julaa's smart cradle no-deal with something that had both commercial scale (₹1 crore monthly revenue) and social scale (2,500 artisan partners) already validated before the pitch began. Anupam asked for samples. And appreciated the quality of the products. Namita commented — she saw it on Goa airport and loved the products on the store. She asked about the journey. Namita's recognition of the product from Goa airport — "I saw it and loved it" — was the pitch's most powerful organic endorsement moment. A Shark who was already a Rare Planet customer before being a potential investor communicates genuine product-market fit more convincingly than any revenue slide. The founder had a problem funding his engineering. So he used to hand-paint the kulhads and sell them in fairs. He worked with artisans and thought of working for this category.

Vineeta Singh exited on category concentration concerns. Vineeta decided not to invest, expressing concerns about the business's reliance on the gifting segment. Ghazal Alagh exited on brand defensibility grounds. Ghazal also chose not to invest, citing an inability to defend the brand. Peyush Bansal was interested but exited on channel concentration grounds. Peyush expressed reservations about the business's dependence on airports and suggested interest once the model was proven in regular malls, but for now he declined to invest. Anupam Mittal was genuinely appreciative of the product quality — examining the kulhads and craft items — but ultimately exited on his own portfolio fit assessment. Namita Thapar was the pitch's most aligned Shark — both as a personal customer (she recognised the brand from Goa airport) and as an investor with healthcare and pharmaceutical distribution expertise that translates directly into understanding premium product distribution at scale.

Namita offered ₹65 lakhs for 5% equity. The co-founders countered at ₹2 crore for 5% equity, which they later revised to ₹65 lakhs for 2.5–3% equity. Namita countered at ₹65 lakhs for 4% equity. After negotiation, the final deal was closed at ₹65 lakhs for 3% equity.

Deal Secured: YES — CONFIRMED AND FORMALLY CLOSED Investment Amount:- ₹65 lakhs Equity Given:- 3%