Confect Fondant (Gauri Varma) on Shark Tank India Update

Last updated on 7 January 2025. Image Credits: SonyLiv.

Find everything about Confect’s pitch on Shark Tank India, founder Gauri Kaushish Varma and the latest updates about the company!

Confect on Shark Tank India

Did this sweet-sweet product get a sweet deal? We will find out soon but the pitch can teach you a lot about how a business changes with time. Also, there was a small sharky argument after this pitch.

Here are the key details about their pitch on Shark Tank:

Name	Confect
Founder	Gauri Varma
Episode	Season 4 Episode 1
Deal	₹1 Crore for 2% Equity + Royalty
Shark	Namita Thapar
Status	In-business

Confect is a premium confectionary brand made with love in India. They make all their bakery items like sugar paste (fondant), premixes and cake decoratives from pure cane sugar. They claim that their products are 100% clean and vegan.

Even in this small niche, they have more than 800 SKUs under their umbrella. The hero product is their Fondant (Sugar Paste) available on Amazon (*Affiliate Link):

Or buy it by clicking here: https://amzn.to/409hpdA 

*Affiliate Link means that we get a certain percentage from the sale when you purchase through our link.

What to learn from them?

There are 3 major lessons from this company:

1. Gap in the Market: Even when India is the second biggest exporter of sugar, we still import bakery stuff. So, it’s a great opportunity to convert raw sugar into high-margin items and then sell them internationally.
2.  International Export: When the founder saw the high price was still a problem for the domestic market, she pivoted to international markets like the USA or the UK. The low cost of production in India would make her product more affordable in those countries.
3. Pivot to D2C: The 2020 pandemic destroyed their B2B business with hotels, so the business pivoted to Direct-to-Consumer where they can even get higher profits.

Did Confect get the deal on Shark Tank?

Founder Gauri was looking to get ₹1 crore in funding for a ₹100 crore valuation. The previous pitcher in the episode was also looking for the same amount, what a coincidence! 

The valuation looked good when the sharks found that the business was doing ₹8 crores in sales, solely from their global vendors. The money was supposed to be spent on the USA warehouses and penetrate the brand there. Now that was a sudden change twist!

Vineeta was the first to ask why she went global and not focused on the local customers. The founder explained that she didn’t understand the domestic market that well and she thought she could compete better in foreign countries. 

Peyush was not impressed with the strategy. He advised her to focus just on the hero product (Fondant) first and be the best at it. Other sharks were also not happy with the international route. 

Still, there was hope with Namita as she seemed interested in the segment from the start. However, she asked the founder to focus equally on India and work on both markets together. 

Watch a sneak peek of the pitch here:

Finally, Confect secured a deal on Shark Tank India with Namita Thapar. Namita invested ₹1 crore for 2% equity, with a 2% royalty until she recoups the invested amount.

About Founder Gauri

Gauri Kaushish Varma is the founder of Confect.

Her journey started with learning to swim, winning at the national level and then getting into Lady Shriram College for Women. After that, she went abroad to Oxford to get her master’s in Business Management.

After some experience at Deloitte, she came back to India and worked with many big Retail companies but finally found her passion in confectionery.

After The Tank Update

When the deal closed, Anupam straight up asked why she suddenly changed her mind about the Indian side of the business. The founder had a good answer for that, but I don’t think Anupam was convinced by it.

After the founder left the room, she also got frustrated with other sharks, saying that they had no idea about this niche. She even said Peyush’s advice to focus on one product was similar to Lenskart just making one pair of glasses. Well, she had some harsh words for them too.

Also, after the pitch aired, the website was offering up to 40% discount for new customers.

By the way, other businesses featured in this episode were FAE Beauty and Indulge.

Takeaways

So now you know about Confect’s pitch on Shark Tank India. I believe Namita is the best shark for the brand.

And if you don’t know who I am? I am Ranish Chauhan a.k.a. Fulmino Fan, a Fan of the Shark Tank show.