Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal Kicked Out Of Shark Tank India; Here’s Why

New Delhi: There is a twist in Shark Tank India 4, which will soon be aired on Sony Television. Apart from Anupam Mittal of People Group, Aman Gupta of boAt Lifestyle, Namita Thapar of Emcure Pharmaceuticals, Peyush Bansal of Lenskart and Ritesh Agarwal of OYO returning as sharks, it introduces new hosts, Sahiba Bali and Ashish Solanki.

Here comes the twist.

It is sponsored by IPO-bound food and grocery platform Swiggy for Rs 25 crore. However, the sponsorship agreement included the removal of Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal from the business reality show, a move Goyal has since confirmed, News18 reported.

During the ET Startup Awards, Goyal, who debuted as a shark in Season 3 of the show, was asked about his public appearances.

“Shark Tank… I really went there to… The startup culture of India is too much about valuations, it’s too much about like showmanship and so on. I just went there to set a different narrative, be real and change how people perceive, how a startup should be built. I just went to do my job. I felt it to be my moral obligation to go there once. I just did it one weekend, and that’s it. I didn’t go there for a long time. I just did one weekend shoot, gave my point of view on how startups should be built and got out of it,” Deepinder Goyal was quoted as saying.

To a query about his going back, Deepinder replied, “I, unfortunately, can’t go back because Swiggy sponsored Shark Tank this time and kicked me out… at least that’s what I heard.”

Notably, Swiggy filed an updated draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on September 26, outlining plans for its IPO. The initial offering includes a fresh issue of Rs 3,750 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of 18.53 crore shares, valued at approximately Rs 6,500 crore based on a price of Rs 350 per share. At an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on October 3, Swiggy’s shareholders approved an increase in the size of the fresh issue to Rs 5,000 crore, allowing for an additional Rs 1,250 crore to be raised if needed. The OFS component remains unchanged, with existing shareholders selling their shares as part of the IPO, as per a Moneycontrol report.