Va Perfumes

Amit Hotchandani is Season 2's most globally fragrance-inspired founder an entrepreneur who discovered the concept of nighttime mood-setting incense during exposure to Nigerian and Indonesian fragrance markets. People use nighttime incense sticks in Nigeria. And the sales are solid there. They did not want to expand in India, so they shared their ingredients with Amit. Amit also tried some perfumes from Indonesia. Eventually, he liked the concept and decided to pursue this venture.

Va Perfumes is India's first nighttime mood-setting agarbatti brand creating premium fragrance incense sticks specifically designed for intimate home environments (Romance, Classic Love, Extreme Fun flavours) rather than devotional or spiritual use, alongside a complementary range of devotional agarbattis. The nighttime agarbatti concept is commercially novel in India. The Indian agarbatti market is dominated by devotional incense sticks lit during prayer, meditation, and religious rituals with fragrance being secondary to the spiritual purpose. Va Perfumes attempted to create a separate consumption occasion: mood lighting for intimate home settings, where fragrance is the primary purpose and the devotional association is deliberately absent.

Amount Asked: ₹1 crore Equity Offered: 10% Implied Pre-Money Valuation: ₹10 crore

Amit Hotchandani walked into Season 2 Episode 39 as the episode's final pitch following Gladful's protein cookies, Pharmallama's all-Shark deal, and Crave Raja Foods' unanimous Shark food praise with a no-deal. In the latest episode of Shark Tank India Season 2 the first pitcher for the day is Amit Hotchandani, who presented his brand of VA perfume. The brand produces night agarbatti to make the mood romantic with a unique smell. He left an impression on them and left them with a smile in the end. The pitch's most theatrical moment was the lighting of Va Perfumes' nighttime agarbattis in the Tank — filling the investment room with the "Romance" fragrance and making all five Sharks experience the product's sensory proposition in real time. The atmosphere-creation demonstration was Season 2 Episode 39's most sensory pitch moment.

Namita Thapar could not personally connect with the product as someone for whom agarbatti carries primarily devotional and spiritual associations, the nighttime mood-setting positioning felt culturally incongruous. She exited without investing. Peyush Bansal exited citing no expertise in the fragrance or agarbatti category his Lenskart optical retail background gave him no specific value-add for a premium incense brand navigating a ₹10,000 crore commodity market. Aman Gupta was the most directly confused by the dual brand positioning. Aman could not understand the business. Amit Jain exited citing scalability concerns building a premium night agarbatti brand from the current ₹70 lakh lifetime sales base to the scale implied by a ₹10 crore valuation required consumer behaviour change at mass market scale in a category dominated by deeply entrenched commodity brands. Anupam Mittal exited on returns grounds. Anupam also got out of the deal because he felt he would not be able to make money from that deal.

No Shark made a formal offer. All five exited without entering negotiation. The combination of brand identity confusion (devotional plus nighttime), early commercial stage (7 months, ₹70 lakh lifetime sales), implied valuation premium (₹10 crore on ₹70 lakh sales), and category expertise mismatch across the entire panel prevented any Shark from reaching an offer stage.

Amit Hotchandani left Shark Tank India Season 2 Episode 39 without any investment. Despite leaving all five Sharks with a smile the nighttime agarbatti demonstration created a notably pleasant sensory experience in the Tank none of the Sharks found the business model, brand clarity, or commercial stage sufficient to justify an investment at the ₹10 crore implied valuation. Va Perfumes went out of business in 2023.

After the Shark Tank India appearance, people were trying to find more information about Va Perfume. The startup went out of business sometime in 2023. Their products are not available through any socials. The Shark Tank visibility gave Va Perfumes a moment of national attention that the brand could not convert into sustainable commercial traction. The combination of brand identity confusion, limited distribution (malls, cosmetic stores, medical stores only), and the cultural challenge of positioning intimate nighttime fragrance in India's mainstream consumer market created commercial headwinds that the Shark Tank visibility alone could not overcome.