Aastey Update 2024 | Shark Tank India Season 03
Athleisure clothing brand Aastey started in 2021 and appeared in Shark Tank India Season 03, seeking ₹80 lakh for 2% equity.
Jeevika Tyagi and Kanupriya Mundhra revealed in the Shark Tank episode that – they’ve no money left in their bank account.
After knowing their financials, no sharks invested in Aastey, and the founders returned without any deal. It has been quite a long since they appeared, and here’s Aastey Shark Tank update!
| Company Name | Aastey |
|---|---|
| Founders | Jeevika Tyagi, Kanupriya Mundhra |
| Founded | 2021 |
| Product | Athleisure clothing |
| Ask | ₹80 lakh for 2% equity |
| Deal | No deal |
| Shark | No shark |
Aastey Update After Shark Tank
Aastey got no deal in the Shark Tank because judges thought this company’s financials were not strong. After airing the episode, founder Jeevika posted a clip on Instagram and alleged Namita for the biggest “financial indiscipline” and Sony TV for dishonest editing.
Our team followed up with Aastey to get more details, but we got no reply from the founders. It’s unclear whether they raised any funds or not.
As of March 2024, the Aastey website is live and taking new orders. We’re hoping that the founders will sell their inventory and save the company from bankruptcy. As soon as we get any response, we’ll come up with new Aastey updates in the future.
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About Company
Aastey is a unique clothing brand that manufactures outfits for all purposes. They design clothes which can be worn as formal and informal. And they look stylish in both instances.
These types of clothing are already popular in the western countries. They are known as athleisure clothing. Aastey claims to be the first and most popular athleisure brand in India.
Jeevika Tyagi and Kanupriya Mundhra founded this brand in 2021. Their target audience is women.
They manufacture many versatile clothing such as leggings, sports bras, tank tops, and many others as well. And they also come in 24 different sizes, which is impressive.
The material used to make these is 100% recycled polyester. The brand spent one year just in R&D to develop high-quality recyclable polyester products.
Athleisure clothes already have a market of about 30,000 Crores worldwide. And the vision of the founders is to make it famous in India.
Aastey Shark Tank India Pitch
The founders began their pitch by asking for ₹80 lakhs at a 2% equity at a valuation of ₹40 crore.
Vineeta: I really liked the name of your brand. Because we have always heard about hustling but never about leisure when it comes to clothing brands.
Founder: You just explained our message to everyone. We want women to take it easy and live gleefully.
The founder said that today, they have become a big community of women. They have around 2 lakh women following their page on Instagram.
Aman: Yeah, your engagement is average. It’s nothing very unique.
Founder: The women like it though.
Peyush then asked the founders whether they were inspired by the story of Lululemon, which has made it big.
Founder: Yes, we are inspired by them. In fact, the manufacturers that made our Uplift Leggings also manufacture for Lululemon. We wanted our clothes to have a similar look but at 1/10th of the price.
Anupam: Do you manufacture in China?
The founder said that their first collection was manufactured in China, but now they manufacture in India.
Anupam: There is a brand called GoColour which also does the same thing. Are they your competitors?
Founder: No, we are not competitors as our products are mostly in a mid-level price range, which is from ₹1200 to ₹2500.
The sharks then manually reviewed their products. Aman liked their designs and colors.
Anupam: You said that there is 100% Polyester but I can feel that it’s 100% cotton.
Founder: Yes, because we use polyester in only our activewear products.
Peyush then informed me that there are already many players in this category. Some of them are large-scale, while some are in the middle. He asked about Aastey’s current position in the market.
Founder: We have done around ₹3.2 crore sales in the last three years. Currently, we are doing about five lakhs monthly sales.
Peyush: So, how many brands are already there in this category?
The founder explained that while there are many brands competing for market space in the same category, none of them are sustainable like Aastey.
Peyush: Okay, sustainability is one aspect, but what about other factors?
Founder: Yeah, we also believe that our designs make us stand out among the many. And this is why we are on Shark Tank India to make it a ₹100 crore product.
Anupam: How much money does Aastey have for its operations?
Founder: We currently don’t have any money left for further marketing and sales.
This raised a lot of questions in sharks’ minds.
Aman: You said that you are doing five lakhs of sales per month, but you don’t have any money left. So, where are you investing exactly? How are you even surviving?
The founder said that they re-invest everything that they earn. And they also currently have an inventory of ₹1.2 crores for six months. We also have liabilities of ₹1 crore, which we have to pay to Meta Ads.
Aman: You are in bad shape, bro. The Indian consumer is not accepting you. I am out. Investing in your business is not worth it.
Namita: You spent so much money on marketing and still failed to create a brand. There are no repeat customers. You need to rethink your current business model. For now, I am out.
Even, Peyush went out of the deal for the same reason.
Vineeta: You guys don’t have any financial discipline that’s why you are in such a situation right now. I am out. Good Luck!
Anupam: I am also out. I think you guys still need to learn business acumen before trying out big things.
Aastey returned empty-handed without any funding from the Sharks.
Conclusion
A lot of times, founders can get over-confident and delusional about their brand, which leads to over-estimation and under-performance. Aastey is one such brand that has under-performed in every aspect, and hence, all the Sharks found it not investor-friendly.
