Shark Tank India pitchers organise romantic date for Ghazal and Varun Alagh, turn down Anupam Mittal’s Rs 8 cr offer: ‘Bade khiladi ho’

What is The Binge Town?

The Binge Town is a venture that provides private theaters for celebrations. Founded by Soumay, Sanketh, Yash, Chetan, and Bishnu, The Binge Town was started in 2022. As shared by the founders, the venture has been profitable since day one. The venture is bootstrapped with an initial investment of Rs 60 lakhs. Today, the team has managed to cover 17 locations and has 64 theaters all over India. They provide services from Rs 1999 and offer a wide range of food and decoration options. They showcased their business by organising a romantic date for Shark Tank India 5 judge Varun Alagh and wife Ghazal on the sets of Shark Tank.

Also Read: Shark Tank India 5’s Anupam Mittal answers if he’s fashioned himself on Tony Stark: ‘They call him Anupam Mittal there’

They came to the tank with an ask of  Rs 2 crores in return for 2 percent equity, placing the company’s valuation at Rs 100 crores. As the founders shared their story, Yash and Sanketh revealed how they tried The Binge Town as customers and later became its co-founders. On learning this, Anupam Mittal said, “Bade khiladi ho bhaiyya. (You guys are big players.)” What further impressed the Sharks was when the founders revealed that “Rs 3 crores were invested from the profit made by the business.” Later, Namita said, “This is the best way to grow.” Anupam Mittal also added, “This is the beauty of Shark Tank India, I could have never imagined a business like this exists. From where did you get this idea? This is crazy.”

Later, the founders impressed all the Sharks with their profit statistics. Sharing how they made 12 percent profit before tax, the founders went on to share that in 2022-23, they earned Rs 44 lakhs and had 27 percent EBITDA. In 2023-24, their revenue was Rs 5.7 crores with 11 percent EBITDA, and in 2024-25, they earned Rs 21.3 crores with 14 percent EBITDA. Year to date, Rs 13.7 crores have been earned, and their projection is to earn more than Rs 27 crores with 11 percent profit before tax.

Anupam Mittal offers Rs 8 crores for 26 percent equity

While everyone was very impressed with the business, a few Sharks had scalability concerns. Sharing her views on the idea, Vineeta Singh opted out and said, “Your model is very similar to a restaurant business; beyond a point, people get bored, so your repeat rate will keep reducing. Secondly, its operational heavy, and scaling this will be difficult, so it will not be the best use of my capital at this moment, so I am out.” Namita Thapar also decided to back out, she said, “How will the quality standards be maintained by the franchise, that makes me nervous in a service business. So I am out.”

Kunal Bahl also lauded the idea, but didn’t go ahead and make an offer. He said, “Very interesting business, good founders notice everything that others miss in the world. You also saw an opportunity, but creating a differentiation in this market is a problem; the market size is capped, so I find it difficult to see how this goes forward, so I am out.”

At this point, Anupam Mittal got into negotiations. He asked, “There will be huge challenges as you scale, especially for quality, but giving you the benefit of doubt, in three years, you might close at Rs 100 cr, unless you start working at bigger venues and plan weddings, you cannot really build a 1000 cr business. So what’s the plan ahead?”

When the founders said they wanted to stick to a platform-based model, Anupam asked, “You don’t want to do bigger venues, or weddings?” The founders said, “Not as of now.” Anupam later went on to add, “I find this very exciting. I have been looking for such a business, particularly because we want to couple it with Shaadi.com, but you guys are not interested.”

When the founders shared that they were open to discussions, Anupam went ahead and made an offer. He said, “I can give lots of money if you’re moving in that direction. We will work out the model, but you have to be open to it. I will give you an offer, it’s very different, Rs 8 crores for 26 percent equity, with a valuation at Rs 30.77 cr.”

Varun Alagh also made an offer, he said, “You’re making a great business by the way, my mouth is watering seeing the venture, it’s that good. I’ll make an offer, Rs 1 crore for 2.5 percent and Rs 1 crore debt on 15 percent for 4 years.” Afterward, the founders made a counteroffer to both Anupam and Varun, but Anupam refused to accept it. He said, “My offer is non-negotiable; this is strategic in nature, so I cannot really budge.” Varun also said no to the counter and added,” I wanted to ask for more, but being nice, I offered a 15 percent rate of interest.”

Eventually, the founders went ahead with Varun Alagh’s offer and denied the season’s biggest bid made by Anupam Mittal.