by Fahd Khan
SRINAGAR: In a first of its kind, the promoters of the Srinagar-based logistic start-up FastBeetle participated and pitched their business proposal before the Shark Tank India Judges, which was aired on the Sony Television channel. Shark Tank India is a business reality TV series that is in its second season in 2023.
The combined deal from Lenskart CEO Piyush Bansal and Boat CEO Aman Gupta to invest 90 lakhs for 7.5 per cent equity was fixed with the Srinagar-based start-up at Rs 12 crore valuation.
FastBeetle, a start-up promoted by Sheikh Samiullah and Abid Rashid started their courier and logistic services in October 2019 from Srinagar and later to the international shipments within months and went on to become the fastest-growing logistics company from Jammu and Kashmir.
“After watching the show last year, we never thought we would be standing on that carpet pitching our business idea to renowned sharks,” Sheikh Samiullah said in a Tweet.
It is pertinent to mention here that FastBeetle had become the first Kashmiri start-up to raise US $100,000 in a pre-series. A funding round led by investors including Sandeep Patel from Nepra, Saurabh Mittal, Vikram Sanghvi, Rohit Qamra, and a few non-resident Kashmiris.
“Our pitch clearly states that we need to create a start-up ecosystem in the Jammu and Kashmir. We had gone to Shark Tank not to present FastBeetle but to represent the aspiration of the 1.5 crore population of Jammu and Kashmir” added Samiullah in his tweet.
FastBeetle has a empowered more than 1200 start-ups and delivered more than 10 lakh orders to 55+ countries. Giant e-commerce sites like Flipkart, Jiomart has tied up with the FastBeetle to deliver parcels to the remotest areas of Jammu and Kashmir.
They said that their company wants to deliver parcels to the far-flung areas of the India where no one has reached till now.
