‘Inspirational…’: How these two brothers win Shark Tank India 2 all-panel deal

Mahantam, a startup founded by brothers Dhaval and Jayesh Nai from Banaskantha, Gujarat, has developed an automatic tea glass-washing machine for roadside tea stalls. The young entrepreneurs have already sold three machines and received inquiries from several vendors.

The brothers have managed to impress all the judges to receive a funding to make Mahantam bigger. Later Shark Tank India posted a clip of their pitch and posted, ‘The story of #Mahantam is truly inspirational for all budding entrepreneurs!’

Dhaval was inspired to build a machine for washing tea glasses after seeing a goat drink water from the same tub used to clean the glasses at a local tea stall. During the Covid lockdown, he learned machine design on YouTube and made several prototypes with available scrap. After receiving ₹10,000 from a college professor to continue working on the design, he created a functional machine that gained interest and inquiries after a friend posted a video of it on YouTube.

To further develop the product, Dhaval received a grant from DreamDeal.com, an initiative started by Anupam Mittal to encourage budding entrepreneurs. Using the grant money, Dhaval upgraded the design to create the final version that was presented on Shark Tank India. The machine is sold for ₹28,000 per unit to tea vendors and can wash 15 tea glasses in just 30 seconds using high-pressure water. It has a capacity of 38 litres of water, which can help wash 250 glasses.

The founders claim that the size of the machine can be adjusted to fit smaller tea stalls or compact areas.

“After seeing your story, in every village, a child will say, I too want to invent and start a booming business,” said Anupam Mittal, founder of Shaadi.com as quoted by Business Insider.