Toymail Talkie Update | Shark Tank Season 8

Kimberly Elizabeth Graf January 30, 2022January 30, 2022

Gauri Nanda pitched Toymail in Shark Tank Season 8. She sought a $250,000 investment in exchange for 2.5% equity. After already securing investments from Verizon and Amazon, Gauri was able to pull in Lori Greiner and Chris Sacca. Learn more about the plush talkie in our pitch recap and Toymail update.

Shark Tank Toymail Update

Entrepreneur: Gauri Nanda
Business: Two-way communication plush toy for kids
Ask: $250,000 for 2.5% equity
Result: $600,000 for 5% equity
Shark: Chris Sacca and Lori Greiner

Toymail is a plush toy that connects to a proprietary app. Using this, friends, families, and kids can talk to each other without using a phone. At the time of Gauri Nanda’s presentation, Toymail had several plush toys in its collection already, including the cute and adorable Bitsy the Bat, Nunu the Unicorn, and Gory the Shark.

During the pitch, Gauri revealed that she’d already secured investments from Amazon and Verizon. They’d invested $1.6 million combined. However, this also meant that she didn’t have as much equity to offer the sharks. Because of the low equity in the deal, Robert Herjavec backed out. Kevin O’Leary followed, even though he was impressed by the product.

Guest shark Chris Sacca echoed the same concerns. Unlike the others, Chris offered $400,000 for 5% equity. Lori Greiner told Gauri to try and negotiate with her. Gauri suggested that Lori join Chris’s offer. However, before she could reply, Chris offered Gauri $600,000 for 5% with Greiner joining him if she liked.

Gauri immediately accepted the offer and left with two new partners. Now for a Toymail Talkie update.

Unfortunately, despite securing a deal with Chris and Lori, Toymail did not succeed. After appearing on Shark Tank, Toymail expanded its product line. It even began a subscription service. They offered additional apps, voice filters, and audio options, too. Even though the later models had Bluetooth and Amazon Echo integration, they simply couldn’t get sales. The company had to file for bankruptcy in November 2018.

At the time of our Toymail update, the company is still out of business. It stopped updating its social media pages in early 2019 and the website is no longer live.

For more company updates from Shark Tank Season 8 Episode 17, look below:

If you’re interested in more company updates from Season 8, check out our Season 8 products page.

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Kimberly Elizabeth Graf

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Kimberly is a writer for Shark Tank Recap. She has written episode summaries and updates across multiple seasons of Shark Tank, with a focus on complete and accurate information since 2021. She believes that getting the business aspects of each deal correct is extremely important for viewers and fans. Her favorite Shark Tank products are The Wobbles and Rocketbook!