Aiming to empower homemads with handcrafted goods, Aishwariya and Minakshi Jhawar co-founded the sustainable business Ekatra. Ekatra, with a mostly female workforce, emphasises employee well-being while creating sustainable paper products, handcrafted stationery, and lifestyle goods aimed to strengthen relationships with oneself, others, and the environment. They sell via their own website and their brand is present on 19 other markets. Over twenty stores all throughout India call them home.

At the time of the pitch, they employed twenty-three women. Founders revealed that in the next few months the count will rise to forty. They also found 400 persons fit for training for the job. Most of their employees operate from home in their own time. Their first financial year sales came at ₹90,000, then ₹9 Lakh in FY20-21. They made ₹10.4 lakhs in first quarter for FY21-22, and their last month sales came out to be ₹5.4 lakh. Their sales come from 60% online and from remainder offline. Their net margin runs around 27%. Last month, they sold ₹75 000 on Amazon. Their own website brings about twenty percent of their purchases.

Company Name: Ekatra

Founder: Aishwariya and Minakshi Jhawar

Product: Sustainable artisinal brand for stationaries and lifestyle products

Highlights

1. Ekatra is a social business that supports rural women artists by giving them work possibilities and thereby helps to conserve traditional skills.
2. Using natural materials and advocating ethical manufacturing methods, the business emphasises on producing environmentally friendly products.
3. Ekatra combines old knowledge with modern designs to specialise in handcrafted, premium products like home décor, accessories, and gift items.
4. Working directly with women artists, the company helps them to preserve their cultural legacy and increase their financial independence by means of a living.
5. Designed to combine history with modern elegance, the product line consists in bags, home décor pieces, and accessories among other products.
6. Ekatra promotes ethical and conscientious consumption by providing goods created responsibly that appeal to consumers that give environmental issues top priority.
7. The entrepreneurs underlined during the pitch the possibilities for business scaling, product variety expansion, and audience reaching both domestically and abroad.

Pitch Details

Ask: ₹40 lakhs for 10% equity, valuing the company at ₹4 crores.

Deal: After negotiation Amit Jain and Peyush Bansal finished the deal at ₹20 Lakhs for 20% Equity and ₹20 Lakhs Debt @10% Interest.

Investors: The investment came from Amit Jain and Peyush Bansal.

Conclusion

The investors responded favourably to the Ekatra pitch on Shark Tank India Season 2, acknowledging the brand’s great social purpose and future for expansion. The Sharks related to the founders’ fervent desire to promote women artists and advance sustainability. Ekatra distinguishes itself on the market for ethical consumption with the mix of modern style and traditional workmanship.
Ekatra finally obtained an investment that would enable them to extend their business, increase the range of products they offer, and more significantly influence rural women artists. The pitch was an inspirational success story on the show since it emphasised not only a commercial possibility but also a possibility to bring social change.

Key Takeaways from the Episode

1. Realistic Values: Steer clear of overpriced company. Get ready to defend your valuation with robust data.
2. Emphasise your core competency—that which defines your brand—by highlighting your capabilities. Diversification should fit your main products.
3. Recognise Your Market: Know your intended market and customise your goods or services to fit their wants.
4. Matters of financial structure: Presenting to investors calls for clear loan conditions and financial structure.
5. Value Technology: Combine digital tools and approaches to effectively scale and simplify company processes.
6. Strong social missions (such as empowerment or sustainability) from a company will draw interest from investors.
7. lucid financial objectives: Understand your needs from investors and make sure your objectives fit the possibilities of your company.