Recur Club Presents Bharat Ke Super Founders, now Streaming on Amazon MX Player

Bharat Ke Super Founders brings together a ₹100 crore capital pool committed by debt marketplace startup Recur Club, which says current television formats such as those of Shark Tank India fail to reflect how the startup economy actually works.

A new startup reality series launching on Amazon MX Player on Friday is attempting to shift the attention away from investors, and towards founders.

Bharat Ke Super Founders brings together a ₹100 crore capital pool committed by debt marketplace startup Recur Club, which says current television formats such as those of Shark Tank India fail to reflect how the startup economy actually works.

In a conversation with ET Entrepreneur, Recur Club co-founders Eklavya Gupta and Abhinav Sherwal said the company wanted to correct what they see as an imbalance in most pitch shows. “The investor becomes the star. But founders are the ones multiplying the money,” Sherwal said.

The new format introduces several changes. A mentor stands beside the founder during the pitch. A group of operators, advisors and domain specialists participate in the conversation. Founders receive multiple equity and debt offers in the same room.

“The idea was to fix the power balance,” Gupta said. “A founder should not feel cornered in a five versus one situation.”

Recur Club said the first season received more than 1,000 applications. Around 100 companies were shortlisted and about 48 finally appeared on the show. A significant number came from outside the major metro cities. Several were already generating revenues in the ₹10–50 crore range. “Pedigree did not matter. Geography did not matter. We judged the business on fundamentals,” Sherwal said.

Recur Club initially expected a 70–30 split between equity and debt. The final outcome leaned much more heavily towards debt because many companies required capital for expansion, inventory or working capital rather than dilution. “Debt made more sense in several cases. Founders often underestimate when debt is the more efficient option,” Gupta said.

To support real-time decision making, the company used its AI-driven underwriting tool. “Instant underwriting was essential. Without it, debt would not have been a genuine option on the show,” Gupta said.

The founders said that most entrepreneurs they met were still not confident about capital structuring. Only a small share, close to 10 per cent by Sherwal’s estimate, understood how to use equity and debt together. Younger founders remained wary of debt, often equating it with personal loans. The team said this gap appeared in both the show and their broader pipeline. “The maturity is improving, but the education gap still exists,” Sherwal said.

The series, hosted by Bollywood actor Suniel Shetty, features seasoned names from the startup ecosystem including A. Velumani, Nitish Mittersain, Aarti Gupta, Shanti Mohan, Aditya Singh and Ankur Mittal. Most wrote cheques in a personal capacity, although there were instances where investments aligned with fund or family office mandates.