Monti Kids Shark Tank Update

Monti Kids Shark Tank Pitch

Zahra Kassam appeared on Shark Tank Season 10, Episode 12, which aired on January 26, 2019, with Montessori based learning subscription service for children from birth to 3 years old.

Monti Kids is listed in the Education category. In plain terms, the business is described as Montessori based learning subscription service for children from birth to 3 years old.

Monti Kids asked the Sharks for $200,000 for 2.5%, implying a valuation of about $8 million.

On the show, Monti Kids made a listed deal with Kevin O'Leary for $200,000 for 2.5% + $10 royalty until $200,000 is repaid.

If treated as straight equity, the listed deal works out to about $8 million implied valuation, roughly the same implied valuation as the ask.

This pitch is included as context for the more important question: what happened after Shark Tank.

Monti Kids After Shark Tank

Monti Kids closed its deal with Kevin O'Leary, and Shark Tank Blog notes the company appeared on Kevin's investment list. The royalty-backed structure made sense only if the subscription toy business kept growing fast enough to absorb the cash cost. (MontiKids Shark Tank update

For a while, the growth story looked real: follow-up reporting says Monti Kids raised $6 million since founding, including Kevin's money, and reached about $7 million in annual revenue by June 2023. (MontiKids revenue follow-up

The toy-subscription operation then stopped. On August 1, 2023, Monti Kids announced it would no longer sell Montessori toys, would fulfill remaining orders, and would keep instructional videos available for the time being. Later reporting says founder Zahra Kassam moved on to The Mushroom Farm, so the Season 10 business is best classified as closed even though some educational content lingered online. (MontiKids closure update

Sources

Sources used for this page: Shark Tank API pitches