What Happened to Solinas After Shark Tank India?
Cleaning septic tanks and sewerage lines takes high skill labor and technology. But even now, people are cleaning the septic & sewerage lines without proper gear. Every year many cleaners die from inhaling poisonous gas while cleaning these pipelines.
Not only that, the lines that carry our drinking water also need to be treated regularly. If not treated, dirt can pile up inside these lines and contaminate our drinking water.
Who is the Founder of Solinas?
To solve this problem, Bhavesh Narayani, Divanshu Kumar, Moinak Banerjee & Linda Jasline founded Solinas which is an end-to-end water sanitation asset management company.
What is Solinas?
This company has multiple products under its belt which are used for cleaning these septic tanks and pipelines.
- HomoSEP is a septic tank cleaning robot. If someone uses this product he doesn’t need to go inside the septic tank physically.
- Endobot is a sewer and water pipeline inspection robot.
They started the company in 2020. Till now they’ve worked in multiple cities.
How much money did they ask for Solinas?
They came to Shark Tank seeking ₹90 Lakhs in exchange for 2% equity in the company. Which gives the company a valuation of ₹45 Crores.
Divanshu Kumar is from Bihar. He completed his mechanical engineering from IIT Madras. In his final year, he began working in Endobot with his professor. His professor is also a co-founder of this company.
Bhavesh Narayani went to IIT Madras to complete his MS. There he met Divanshu and joined the Endobot project. Now, he’s the product head of the sanitation department of the company. Also, Bhavesh met his wife from Shaadi.com (A successful venture of Anupam Mittal).
Moinak is from West Bengal. He’s also a mechanical engineer.
Linda is from Chennai. She manages all the R&D of the company. She also handles all the general management of the company.
When Divanshu made the first prototype he showed that to a group of people who work in the septic tank. Btw, if you don’t know what a septic tank is, it is the part where all our human waste stays. So, back to the story, the people laughed at the prototype because they thought this wouldn’t work in real life.
In the septic tank, the human waste is stored. The solid waste stays at the bottom. The liquid waste stays on top of that. The liquid part can be easily collected. But the solid waste can’t be collected. That’s why a person has to go down there and collect the waste himself.
There are super suction machines that can be used to collect the waste, but it’s really expensive. And the rural areas can’t afford that machine.
Solinas Products
That’s where HomoSEP will come in place and clean the septic tank with minimum cost. The machines cost around ₹15 ~ ₹25 Lakhs.
The 2nd product they have is Endobot. This can go inside a pipeline, scan the entire area inside and give reports. They have 3 versions of Endobot available at the moment. One for smaller pipes, one for medium, and one for larger pipelines.
In HomoSEP they’ve filed 4 patents. 2 patents are already granted.
In Endobot they will file patents in the future.
Equity structure of Solinas
| Divanshu Kumar | 32% |
| Bhavesh Narayani | 8.5% |
| Moinak Banerjee | 5.5% |
| Linda Jasline | 2.5% |
| Non-Executives like professors | 20% |
| Investors & Others | 31.5% |
How much money did they raise for Solinas?
Till now, they’ve raised ₹4.2 Crores on ₹26 Crores post-money valuation.
What are the Annual Sales of Solinas?
| Fiscal Year | Annual Sales |
| 2021 – 2022 | ₹1.2 Crores |
| 2022 – 2023 | ₹5 Crores |
Sales split of Solinas
From that ₹5 Crores, HomoSEP Sales is ₹3 Crores, and Endobot services will be ₹2 Crores. In both avenues, the gross margin will be around 60%.
They want to grow their business more by working with the local government.
Which shark gave Solinas an offer?
Amit Jain & Namita Thapar gave the 1st offer. They offered ₹52 Lakhs for 2%, the rest ₹38 Lakhs will be debt at 10% interest.
Peyush Bansal & Anupam Mittal gave the 2nd offer. They offered ₹90 Lakhs for 3.35%. There’s no debt in this offer.
| Offer 1 | Offer 2 |
| Amit Jain & Namita Thapar – ₹52 Lakhs for 2%, ₹38 Lakhs debt @ 10% interest | Peyush Bansal & Anupam Mittal – ₹90 Lakhs for 3.35% |
The founders didn’t want to match the previous round they raised their money in. They wanted more than ₹26 Crores valuation.
Aman Gupta was out because he thought there were enough good offers on the table that the founders could choose from.
The founders didn’t want to take any debt. And for that reason, Namita Thapar & Amit Jain withdrew their offer.
What deal did Solinas get in Shark Tank India?
Now there was only one offer on the table. It was ₹90 Lakhs for 3% of the company. Which gives the company a valuation of ₹30 Crores.
| Company Name | Solinas |
| Founders | Bhavesh Narayani, Divanshu Kumar, Moinak Banerjee & Linda Jasline |
| Asked Amount | ₹90 Lakhs for 2% |
| Final Deal | ₹90 Lakhs for 3% |
| Sharks | Peyush Bansal & Anupam Mittal |
| Company Net Worth | ₹30 Crores |
| Company Website | www.solinas.in |
| Company Status | In Business |
They took the deal, & just like that another deal was closed.
