‘Bura lagta hai?’: Anupam Mittal asks ‘underachieving’ Shark Tank India 5 pitchers with Aadhar, BharatPe, CoWin experience | Television News
3 min readNew DelhiFeb 11, 2026 12:51 PM IST
It’s not often that you see the judges of Shark Tank India are lost for words. They witness many ridiculous pitches and over-the-top contestants, but they almost always have something to say. During the latest episode of season 5, a group of three contestants shocked the judges when they announced their educational and professional backgrounds. Their product got attached to this star-studded resume, and the judges could be seen taking a keen interest in what they had to offer.
Aviral Gupta, Vidit Sadana, and Syed Uzair Ahmed pitched their product CotoPay to the judges. What this product essentially does is create online payment vouchers, which can be programmed and used for specific expenses a company might incur. First they were asked about their background, and Aviral said he completed his schooling at Doon School, Dehradun, before going to London Business School. He was also a part of the founding team of BharatPe.
Vidit then talked about his journey, which took him through SRCC and IIM Ahmedabad before he became a product manager for ITC. Syed talked about his experience of 20 years, which had him working on projects like Aadhaar, CoWin, and more. Anupam poked fun at them and said, “Aap teeno itne underachiever hai, kabhi bura nahi lagta (You guys are such underachievers. Don’t you feel bad)?” Aman Gupta and Kanika Tekriwal also lauded the guys for their past ordeals.
They asked for Rs 50 lakh for 1% equity of the company, putting the company valuation at Rs 50 crore. The three of them listed out the problem statement, which includes employers not being able to track, control, or organise the expenses that their employees incur during company business. Their product creates an online voucher, which will only work for the payments that have been authorised by the employer. When a QR code is scanned, the product identifies the merchant type and helps the user to pay via the voucher.
An interesting point to note was that this is the first company of its kind in the market. They said that they are planning to charge 0.5% to 0.7% of the total monthly expenditure of the company. Aman bowed out of the deal, saying that applying this to companies will be very difficult. Anupam offered Rs 50 lakh for 2% equity. Kunal Bahl, Mohit Yadav, and Kanika Tekriwal offered the same amount. Then Kunal, Anupam and Mohit all went up to Rs 75 lakh for 2%. The contestants gave a counteroffer to Kunal and Anupam, Rs 75 lakh for 3%, which both of them agreed to. Aman showed his support after the pitchers got deal from three sharks and said, “Arre waah, mazaa aa gaya”.
