The founder of Masters Union, Pratham Mittal, is joining Shark Tank India as a new shark in the upcoming season, with a special focus on bringing more realism and long-term thinking to how students and families understand startups and entrepreneurship.
Who the new shark is
Pratham Mittal is the founder of Masters Union and Tetr College of Business, practitioner-led institutions that use industry leaders and real business projects instead of traditional classroom teaching. Under his leadership, Masters Union has built a strong startup pipeline, with multiple student and alumni ventures already pitching and getting funded on Shark Tank India in earlier seasons. He has positioned himself as a “founder-first” educator, backing student ventures through MU Ventures, fellowships, and structured startup programs.
His role on Shark Tank India
In his announcement, Mittal said he initially felt excited, then questioned whether he could add real value, before concluding that the show’s biggest impact is as a public learning platform for families and students. He has said his aim is to bring more realism, honesty, context and long-term thinking to conversations with founders, especially around trade-offs, uncertainty and the hard realities of building businesses. He also underlined that Shark Tank’s TV format is different from how funding works in the real world, but still extremely useful for exposing India’s youth to startup concepts.
Other sharks this season
Sony has not yet released the final, official full panel for Shark Tank India Season 5, but multiple reports and promos indicate a mix of returning and new investors.
- Expected returning sharks include Anupam Mittal (Shaadi.com), Namita Thapar (Emcure), Aman Gupta (boAt), Vineeta Singh (Sugar) and Peyush Bansal (Lenskart), who have appeared in multiple previous seasons.
- New faces reported for Season 5 include Mohit Yadav, cofounder of skincare brand Minimalist, and now Pratham Mittal as a shark with a strong campus and student entrepreneurship lens.
- The show has also historically used rotating or guest sharks (such as Deepinder Goyal, Ritesh Agarwal, Kunal Bahl, Viraj Bahl and others), and a similar rotating format is likely to continue, with five sharks on the panel in any given episode.
When Season 5 will air
Sony has confirmed Shark Tank India Season 5 in its 2025 content slate, but has not announced an exact premiere date. Trade reports and entertainment coverage suggest it is expected to begin airing in late 2025 or early 2026 on Sony Entertainment Television, with simultaneous streaming on SonyLIV, similar to prior seasons’ January–March runs.
Read this: “They Came to Fix Their Character” – Aman Gupta Opens Up on Why New Sharks Are Joining the Show
Campus Special and why he fits
Shark Tank India has launched a “Campus Special” initiative in partnership with Masters’ Union, inviting college and school founders to pitch student-led startups on the show. Mittal has already worked closely with Shark Tank via this pipeline, with at least five Masters Union-linked startups featuring on past seasons and raising capital or strategic support from sharks like Namita Thapar and Aman Gupta.
His move onto the main panel fits that trajectory: he wants to use national TV to normalize entrepreneurship as a serious career option, push for more grounded discussions on valuations, unit economics, and trade-offs, and give young founders clearer expectations about the long game of building companies rather than chasing only viral moments.
