Exclusive- Shark Tank India 3:Pitcher Manoj Sanker on Peyush Bansal slamming them for receiving overseas funding, says 'we were actuallybanking on him as we thought he would understand'

Nemo Care founders pitch their healthcare devices for newborns, sharing personal experiences with incubators. Seeking Rs 1 crore for 2.5% equity, they reveal receiving grants including one from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. A deal is struck with Aman Gupta for Rs 20 lakh equity and Rs 80 lakh debt at 10% interest for 2 years. In an exclusive conversation with ETimes TV, Manoj Sanker got candid about their experience in the tank, his tussle with Peyush Bansal and more.

It was very overwhelming for us, we made preparations as it was our first time coming to a reality show as founders. When the music started playing we had goosebumps, when we were doing the rehearsals a day before the shoot. The whole experience in the tank was very overwhelming. A good detailed 90-100 mins conversation with the sharks. We had a very in-depth interaction, every bit of it right from the start to the product, problem, we had one of the most extensive pitches and we walked out with a deal. We were very excited about it. It was very special and we loved every bit of it.

I will be very honest, I don't know how much it came across. Rahul Dua had also asked me off the tank whether I was keen to take investment from Peyush. I was very keen, I wanted to have him on board when we started off but somewhere along the line, there was some biasness that came in from his past investment. We were disappointed that he wasn't a part but we were happy to get a shark who was positive about our vision. That is exactly what we need.

It was a little tough for us because we were banking on Peyush as we thought he would understand the product and business better. However, due to the misalignment, we had to go for a greater vision. The vision of the company and the purpose was beyond the founders and what we were doing so we had to stick to it.

There was one clarification, the first grant came from overseas because it is a global thing, but apart from that, all the other grants were heavily rooted from the Indian context. BIRAC supported us extensively, and so did the government of India. We always have our duty towards fulfilling the cause that we started off for the newborn babies. Irrespective of the geography, here in India, we definitely want to create an impact here. Also, all babies across the globe who require this intervention will be catered to.

The only difference of opinion that we had was a huge learning for us. We are different humans, not everything is going to go as planned. What Peyush thought and felt was to 'stick to India' and keep the mission here. But what we felt and our learning was that we want to scale up globally, what we have built, the technology is robust. If a Tesla was ever built in India, it could run in any part of the world. This has been the analogy for us as well, we built it so robust that it can scale up, and people also see the requirement around the world in terms of healthcare.

We don't want to leave it here and go global, people have been seeing the need for it overseas as well. Especially after the pandemic people have become more aware of healthcare. That is the only thing which didn't come across, but Aman came out in our support, he said, 'I go with you, it is not that you are going to let go of the Indian babies, it is just that you want to sustain and I am ok with that.' That is the one point where we thought that we had gotten the right shark as we didn't know what Aman would say there.

We are doing a larger round simultaneously, we will be going to close that soon especially after the episode being aired there has been a lot of traction. Lastly, its not that we are chasing US money, it is just that we are looking for more paying capacity and the mission is clearly to ensure that the product is more accessible to every baby in need.

Aman understood what we were trying to explain through our product and business. That is what we also look for when we are raising funds that someone who understands the vision and I think that is where it kind of felt through for us. Honestly, we were a little disappointed that we couldn't get Peyush, it would have been great if we got a multi-shark deal but we are very happy with Aman as he really believed in us.