SNEAKINN

Sahil Jain and Arunima Singhal Jain are Season 4's most romantically intertwined co-founders. They have known each other since school, built SNEAKINN together from 2020, and married in 2023 after three years of entrepreneurial partnership. Their personal and professional lives are completely unified: they build the business together, solve problems together, and celebrate wins together. The founding story was born from Sahil's personal frustration: "In India, I had given a pair of my sneakers to a dry cleaner. But they had used a peculiar type of shoe polish on them and it ruined the pair. No one picked up my calls and there was no customer service either." This experience of a ₹15,000 pair of sneakers being destroyed by an incompetent dry cleaner crystallised the market gap: India had no professional, premium-quality sneaker and luxury goods care service.

SNEAKINN is India's only professional premium sneaker laundry and luxury goods restoration service, offering specialised care for high-end footwear and leather accessories that traditional dry cleaners cannot safely handle. The core insight: a ₹50,000 pair of Air Jordans requires fundamentally different care than a ₹500 pair of canvas shoes, yet India's dry cleaning industry treats all footwear identically, often ruining expensive sneakers through inappropriate chemicals, abrasive brushes, and incorrect drying methods. SNEAKINN's restoration process employs advanced techniques and high-quality, brand-appropriate materials to meticulously restore products to their original condition. Each item undergoes assessment (identifying materials, stains, damage type), customised treatment planning (selecting appropriate cleaning agents, techniques, and restoration methods), professional execution (trained technicians performing the work), and quality verification.

Amount Asked: ₹90 lakhs Equity Offered: 3% Implied Pre-Money Valuation: ₹30 crore

Sahil and Arunima walked into Season 4 Episode 11 as the episode's most uniquely positioned service-business founders. Their pitch opened with the sneaker culture explosion in India: as young Indians increasingly invest in premium sneakers (₹10,000 to ₹1,00,000 per pair), they need professional care services to protect their investment. Yet India has no organised, premium-quality sneaker care infrastructure. The demonstration showed before-and-after restoration results: damaged, stained, discoloured sneakers transformed into pristine-condition footwear that looked newly purchased. The quality of restoration work visibly impressed every Shark. What followed was Season 4 Episode 11's most dramatically Shark-versus-Shark negotiation. Multiple offers flew across the panel:

Ritesh Agarwal made the first offer: ₹45 lakhs for 5% equity plus ₹45 lakhs debt at 10% interest. Anupam Mittal and Vineeta Singh initially teamed up: ₹90 lakhs for 10% equity with 1% royalty until investment recouped. Namita Thapar created Season 4's most unexpected Shark intervention: despite not making her own competing offer, she publicly advised the founders to reject the royalty structure, calling it bad for their business. Kunal Bahl showed interest but did not make a final competing offer against the intensifying Anupam-Vineeta-Namita dynamics. Anupam Mittal (revised solo offer) ultimately withdrew the royalty component and revised to ₹90 lakhs for 6.5% equity solo (₹13.85 crore valuation), removing Vineeta from the deal structure. The founders accepted this cleaner, royalty-free deal.

Season 4 Episode 11's most dramatically multi-stage and Shark-versus-Shark negotiation. Founders asked ₹90L for 3% (₹30 crore). Ritesh offered ₹45L equity plus ₹45L debt. Anupam plus Vineeta offered ₹90L for 10% plus 1% royalty. Namita intervened: "Don't take royalty, it's bad for your business." Vineeta-Namita tension erupted. Anupam revised to solo offer: ₹90L for 6.5% equity, no royalty (₹13.85 crore valuation). Founders accepted. The valuation dropped 54% from ₹30 crore to ₹13.85 crore, and equity more than doubled from 3% to 6.5%, but the founders secured their full ₹90 lakh ask from Anupam with a clean, royalty-free structure that Namita had specifically advocated for.

Sahil Jain and Arunima Singhal Jain accepted Anupam Mittal's offer of ₹90 lakhs for 6.5% equity, valuing SNEAKINN at ₹13.85 crore. Anupam's Shaadi.com consumer platform expertise, digital marketing scaling methodology, and consumer services scaling experience provided the most applicable strategic capability for a premium service brand expanding from 3 stores to a nationwide franchise network. The deal's most commercially significant outcome: Namita's intervention ensured the founders received a royalty-free structure, protecting their future cash flows from royalty obligations during the critical scaling phase.

"We plan to use the funding to expand Sneakinn's presence across metro cities, with Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, and Ludhiana being key locations on our list. This includes opening more pickup and drop-off stores and building a strong home pickup network in these cities. We're also growing our B2B partnerships with luxury brands for after-sales care and actively working on a franchise model to expand nationally. These initiatives will help establish Sneakinn as a leader in the premium restoration and lifestyle care industry in India." — Sahil Jain SNEAKINN continues expanding its premium sneaker and luxury goods care ecosystem post-Shark Tank. The ₹90 lakh investment is being deployed across four strategic priorities: metro city expansion (Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Ludhiana), home pickup network development (eliminating the need for customers to visit stores), B2B luxury brand partnerships (becoming the official after-sales care partner for luxury brands selling in India), and franchise model development (enabling entrepreneurs in new cities to open SNEAKINN outlets).