Shark Tank India startup CaneBOT

CaneBOT's Shark Tank India pitch never aired. It was uploaded to YouTube as one of the Shark Tank India Unseen Pitches, and the founders revealed to us that they were never told why their episode didn’t air.

CaneBOT was founded by Kirty Datar and Milind Datar with the goal of revolutionising how sugarcane juice is produced and consumed in India. Their flagship product is the world’s first fresh sugarcane juice robotic vending machine which completely automates the traditionally labour-intensive and unhygienic process of turning sugarcane into juice. And before they stepped into the tank, Kirty Datar and Milind Datar had actually watched every season of Shark Tank USA as they were huge fans of the show, but to their surprise, it was nothing like the American version of the show. They were asking for 1 crore rupees in exchange for a 2.5 percent equity. However, the sharks ultimately decided not to invest, expressing concerns about the founders managing too many different business verticals at once. They were juggling their pre-revenue B2B sugarcane juice vending machine R&D, and B2C packaged juice for FMCG. Additionally, the sharks found the price of 70 rupees per bottle to be too high for widespread consumer adoption.

Kirty Datar and Milind Datar listened carefully to the sharks’ feedback and applied it to their business, choosing to discontinue their line of packaged drinks and concentrate fully on the thing that makes their business unique: their vending machines, which are fully made in Pune. And this shift has been incredibly beneficial for them. CaneBOT now holds 16 intellectual property assets, including 7 patents, they’ve also secured grants and equity funding totalling 2 crore rupees from the likes of BIRAC, IIT Bombay, IIT Ropar & Venture Center. They have recently won the prestigious National Startup Award in the category “Retail Innovator of the Year” and their market presence has also expanded, with interest from the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the USA. At this point they have successfully commercialized their indigenous product, the CaneBOT vending machine, and they’re projecting that their valuation by 2026 will have reached 250 crore rupees, which is a big increase from their valuation on the show of 40 crore rupees.

[debashishnag]

I would prefer to pay a street vendor for sugarcane juice in order to support the locals

[shayanraj]

It will work where manual labour is expensive

[SpaceShark]

Reminds me of another company that made juice packets 🤔 🤔