The Ayurveda Co.

Shreedha Singh is Season 2's most personally healed-to-entrepreneur founder. Her severe skin allergies — which lasted years before conventional medicine and cosmetic products failed to resolve them — led her on a personal investigation into Ayurvedic skin treatment. When Ayurveda healed her in six months where everything else had failed, the founding mission of T.A.C was immediate: make clinically validated, accessible Ayurvedic skincare mainstream for modern Indian consumers who had been misled by pseudo-scientific "natural" brands making unverifiable claims. Param Bhargava co-founded the company alongside Shreedha handling the operational and business development dimensions of what became one of India's fastest-scaling Ayurvedic beauty brands.

T.A.C is India's fastest-growing science-backed Ayurvedic beauty and personal care brand formulating skincare, haircare, and wellness products using traditional Ayurvedic ingredients (Kumkumadi, Eladi, Methi, Nalpamaradi, Oudh) combined with modern cosmetic science to create products that are both clinically effective and authentically Ayurvedic. The brand's key differentiation from both conventional beauty brands (which ignore Ayurvedic ingredients) and traditional Ayurvedic brands (which ignore modern formulation science) is the bridge it builds between the two.

Amount Asked: ₹1.5 crore Equity Offered: 0.5% Implied Pre-Money Valuation: ₹300 crore

The pitch opened with the Indian herbal cosmetics market opportunity projected to reach $4.7 billion by 2026 and positioned T.A.C as the modern Ayurvedic beauty brand that could capture the mainstream urban Indian consumer who wanted the benefits of Ayurveda without the inconvenience of traditional vaidya consultations, difficult-to-source ingredients, or ineffective mass-market "natural" products that made claims without delivering results. The "digitalization of Ayurveda" vision including the planned T.A.C App for mobile-based Ayurvedic consultation globally communicated a technology ambition that went beyond physical product distribution to positioning T.A.C as an Ayurvedic healthcare platform.

Aman Gupta was drawn to T.A.C's brand-building capability and the Ayurvedic beauty category's growth momentum. Vikas D. Nahar (Happilo's founder) was the most strategically aligned guest Shark Happilo's health food and wellness brand-building experience made T.A.C's natural, Ayurvedic, wellness-forward beauty positioning a natural portfolio extension. Other Sharks exited on various grounds valuation concerns (₹300 crore for a 2-year-old brand was aggressive even by fast-growing beauty standards), competitive intensity concerns, and domain-expertise misalignment.

Initially, T.A.C requested ₹1.5 crores for 0.5% at a valuation of ₹300 crore. They carried out a deal for ₹81 lakhs for 1% equity and ₹69 lakhs debt at 12% interest. The deal moved from ₹1.5 crore (ask) to ₹1.5 crore total (₹81L equity plus ₹69L debt) maintaining the same capital amount but restructuring it with a debt component and moving the equity from 0.5% to 1% (halving the implied valuation from ₹300 crore to ₹81 crore). The founders accepted correctly assessing that Aman's consumer brand-building expertise and Vikas's health and wellness distribution network were worth the valuation compromise.

Shreedha Singh and Param Bhargava accepted Aman Gupta and Vikas D. Nahar's joint offer of ₹81 lakhs for 1% equity plus ₹69 lakhs debt at 12% interest valuing T.A.C at ₹81 crore. The deal was a 73 percent markdown from the founders' ₹300 crore implied ask, but the subsequent Series A at over ₹100 crore (implying a significantly higher post-money valuation) confirmed that the ₹81 crore deal valuation was already a markdown that the business's subsequent growth quickly exceeded.

T.A.C raises USD 12.2 Mn in Series A round led by Sixth Sense Ventures. It also saw participation from actress Kajal Agarwal, notable startup founders and venture debt funds. It was also seen on 'Shark Tank India' special episode number 51. The brand has shown unprecedented growth over the past 10 months, growing over 300%, with a strong omni-channel distributor across retail touchpoints and online channels. T.A.C has recently forayed into global markets, starting with MEA region with its Dubai launch. In FY24, the founders intend to produce INR 150 crore in revenue. To support this, the D2C brand recently raised INR 100 crore in a Series A investment. T.A.C ranks second out of 85 current competitors.