There were 1,513 pitches aired from Seasons 1 through 17 in this dataset. And 936 of them got to the point where an entrepreneur said yes to a Shark. That is what happened in the Tank. But the money does not necessarily follow that yes.
Saying yes in the Tank is only part of the deal. After filming, the Shark gets to look through the business and its numbers again. And that can change what happens next. Some deals go ahead, while some never actually happen.
So, 936 businesses left the Tank with an accepted deal. But that does not mean all 936 deals actually happened after the show. Some of them did, while others ended after filming. That leaves us with another number to find: how many of those 936 deals really went through?
How Often Do Entrepreneurs Get a Deal on Shark Tank?
Out of the 1,513 pitches, 936 got a deal from at least one Shark. That puts the deal rate at 61.9%. So, a little more than six out of every ten entrepreneurs left the Tank with an agreement.
But it was much harder to get a deal when Shark Tank first started. Season 1 had 64 pitches, and only 27 got a deal. That was 42.2%. By Season 17, 54 of the 72 pitches ended with a deal, taking the rate all the way up to 75%.
Shark Tank Deal Rate by Season
The bars show the percentage of aired pitches that received an accepted on-air deal.
Shark Tank Pitches and Deals by Season
There were some pretty busy seasons of Shark Tank. Seasons 5, 6 and 7 each had 116 pitches in this dataset. Compare that with Season 1, when there were only 64 businesses pitching to the Sharks. The number of pitches had grown quite a bit.
Season 12 had something else though. There were 71 deals made that season, and no other season from Season 1 through 17 had that many. Seasons 5, 6 and 7 had more businesses pitching, but they still did not get to 71 deals. So, having more entrepreneurs in the Tank did not necessarily give a season more deals.
| Season | Aired Pitches | On-Air Deals | No Deal | Deal Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 1,513 | 936 | 577 | 61.9% |
How Many Shark Tank Deals Actually Close?
A deal made in the Tank still has to get through what happens after filming. The Shark gets another look at the business and all the numbers behind it. Some of these deals change, and others never go through. So, the 936 deals we saw accepted on television are not 936 confirmed investments.
We have 558 deals that are confirmed to have closed. Then there are 331 where we know the deal did not go through. Another 47 still do not have a clear result, and we are leaving them that way. There is no reason to call a deal failed just because we have not found enough evidence showing that it closed.
Search Popular Shark Tank Companies
Use the finder to look through notable companies across the seasons. Search by company name or narrow the results by season, category, Shark, deal result or current status.
How Many Shark Tank Companies Are Still in Business?
How many Shark Tank companies are still in business is a little harder to count. An independent database has 1,513 pitches from Seasons 1 through 17, and it has a known status for 1,470 of them. Around 74% were still operating or had been acquired. The remaining 26% had shut down.
We had also counted the companies ourselves before. That gave us 1,030 businesses still operating and 408 that had closed. But there was a problem. Some Shark Tank businesses were missing from our company tables, and some were listed in the wrong seasons.
So, we have taken the 1,030 and 408 numbers out for now. There were companies missing from the tables, and some of them were in the wrong seasons. We first need to fix that list and then see how many of the businesses are still around.
Until then, we do have the 74% from the independent database. But that number comes from their list of Shark Tank companies, not ours. We don’t know yet what our own percentage will be once all the missing businesses are added back in. So, we’ll count everything again once the SharkTankInsights company tables are complete.
Why Has the Shark Tank Deal Rate Changed?
More entrepreneurs are getting deals than they were when Shark Tank began. In Season 1, 42.2% of the pitches ended with a deal. Season 17 was quite different, with deals for 75% of the pitches. That means three out of every four businesses got one.
What changed along the way is not so easy to know. Seventeen seasons have brought a lot of different businesses into the Tank. The Sharks have changed too, and so have some of the deals they make. There have been different Sharks too, and we have seen plenty of different ways for them to put a deal together.
So, the numbers can show us that the deal rate went up. They just cannot explain why it went from 42.2% to 75%. There could be several things behind that change, rather than one reason we can pull from the percentages alone.
What Counts as a Shark Tank Deal?
On-Air Deal
The entrepreneur accepts an offer during the televised pitch. This is what the 936 figure counts.
Confirmed Closed Deal
Post-show reporting supports that an agreement went through after due diligence. The final terms may still have changed.
Confirmed Fell Through
Post-show reporting supports that the accepted television agreement did not close.
Unresolved
There is not enough reliable public information to put the deal in either group. We do not automatically count it as failed.
Shark Tank Statistics FAQs
How many businesses have pitched on Shark Tank?
The season-by-season television dataset used here contains 1,513 aired pitches across Seasons 1 through 17.
How many Shark Tank pitches got a deal?
936 pitches received an accepted on-air deal, which is 61.9% of the 1,513 aired pitches in this dataset.
How many Shark Tank deals actually closed?
Current post-show tracking has 558 confirmed closed deals, 331 confirmed fell-through deals and 47 unresolved agreements.
What percentage of Shark Tank companies are still in business?
A current independent status dataset reports about 74% of companies with a known status as operating or acquired. We do not present that as SharkTankInsights’ own survival audit.
Which season had the highest Shark Tank deal rate?
Season 17 had the highest rate in this Seasons 1–17 dataset at 75%, with 54 accepted deals from 72 aired pitches.
Hi. I’m Daniyal Durrani. A CA-finalist, CPA-UK, and Master in Economics, with a decade-long business studies experience. I work as an Audit and Business Advisory Manager in a globally recognized accounting firm. I have been watching Shark Tank for a long time and have always admired the innovative business ideas. The revolutionary solutions to unaddressed day-to-day problems presented on the show used to impress me like no other thing on TV. Read more About me.
