Suniel Shetty’s Startup Investment Portfolio: From Beardo to Proxgy

Before there was an action hero, before there were box office hits, before there was a startup portfolio, there was a nine-year-old boy who ran away from Mangalore and arrived in Mumbai with nothing.

Suniel Shetty’s father, Veerappa Shetty, ran away from Mangalore at age 9 and came to Mumbai. He found work as a waiter at a small South Indian restaurant and used to sleep on sacks meant for rice. Veerappa climbed the ranks of the restaurant industry through hard work, eventually managing the same establishments he had once cleaned tables in. When his boss retired, Veerappa bought all three buildings outright.

Suniel Shetty owns all three of those buildings today.

“My dad ran away and came to Mumbai as a child,” Suniel Shetty has said. “He didn’t have a father, but he had three sisters. He found work in a South Indian restaurant at age nine because that’s the thing about our community, we support each other. His first job was cleaning tables. When the boss retired, Dad bought all three buildings. Today, I still have all three buildings. And that’s where our journey began.”

That story matters here for a specific reason. Born in Mulki near Mangaluru and raised partly in Mumbai, Suniel Shetty’s early life was shaped by his family’s restaurant business and the hard-earned lessons that come with it. His father’s journey from washing plates to owning restaurants laid a foundation of discipline and grit that he carried into both his film and business careers. The investor who would later back fitness apps, grooming brands, and deeptech wearables did not learn business from a classroom. He learned it watching his father claw his way from a rice-sack bed to building ownership.

From Balwaan to Boardrooms

Suniel Shetty was born on August 11, 1961, in Mulki, into a Tulu-speaking Bunt family. He completed his early schooling at Lawrence School, Sanawar, in Himachal Pradesh, before earning a degree in commerce from H.R. College of Commerce and Economics in Mumbai.

He burst onto the film scene with Balwaan in 1992, becoming one of Hindi cinema’s most recognisable action heroes. Over a career spanning more than three decades and over 100 films, he became a fixture of mainstream Bollywood, known equally for his physicality on screen and his calm, grounded presence off it.

Beyond acting, he produced films under Popcorn Motion Pictures and co-founded the online casting platform F…the Couch (FTC). But it is in the last decade that he has quietly built something that runs in parallel to his film career: a genuinely active, hands-on startup investment portfolio.

The Investment Philosophy: Equity Over Endorsement Fees

Most Bollywood stars approach brand deals the same way: take the cheque, shoot the campaign, move on. Suniel Shetty did something different the very first time the opportunity presented itself.

Sunil Shetty’s investment journey reportedly began with a unique approach. Instead of just being a brand ambassador, he opted to invest in the men’s grooming startup Beardo in exchange for equity rather than a fee.

That single decision, choosing ownership over a one-time payment, set the tone for everything that followed.

“Investing for me is like my own little Shark Tank that I have created with my team,” Shetty has said. “While investing, there needs to be a balance between the value you bring in as an investor and the money you put in. The young founders all have grand and great ideas, but what matters is what I bring to the table as well, the mentorship and ways in which I help grow the business.”

Rather than relying solely on acting or conventional celebrity investments, he developed a deliberate philosophy: invest in businesses built for real Indian unit economics and functional scale, not fleeting valuations.

Beardo

If there is one company that defines Suniel Shetty’s reputation as an investor, it is Beardo.

In 2016, he became an active startup investor by investing in the men’s grooming brand Beardo, eventually becoming the face and brand ambassador for the brand. Beardo was founded in Ahmedabad by Ashutosh Valani and Priyank Shah, building a range of men’s grooming products including beard oils, waxes, and shaping tools at a time when the category barely existed in India.

Built on an initial investment of mere ₹3 crore, Beardo sold at an estimated valuation of ₹350 to 400 crore in a two-phased acquisition by Marico, valuing the company at 4 to 4.5 times its 2019-20 revenues. Venture Catalysts, the first external investor in the company with a total investment of ₹2.5 crore in 2016, pocketed around 5 to 6 times returns. Snapdeal co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, who also invested during the same period, exited at somewhere between ₹5 to 7 crore for the ₹50 lakh they had invested.

Besides Venture Catalysts, Beardo also counted actor Suniel Shetty as an investor, and the brand had recruited Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan as its brand ambassador in its later years.

“When we zeroed in on Beardo, the male grooming market in India was negligible but had huge potential. Beardo’s unit economics was very strong and the revenues were multiplying 1 to 1.5x every month,” said Apoorv Ranjan Sharma of Venture Catalyst.

FITTR

Suniel Shetty’s portfolio includes FITTR, the fitness app that raised $2 million from Sequoia Capital in a pre-Series A funding round in April 2020.

FITTR is a community-driven fitness platform connecting users with certified coaches and structured workout and nutrition programmes, building its early growth through a network of grassroots fitness coaches across India rather than paid celebrity marketing alone.

Suniel Shetty’s reasoning for backing FITTR was rooted in personal credibility rather than financial modelling alone. “I understood the space,” he has said of the investment, reflecting decades of his own public association with fitness and physical discipline, both on screen and in real life. His involvement in FITTR predates the broader Indian fitness app boom that followed the pandemic, positioning it as one of his earlier, more prescient bets.

Recent Update: Rohit Sharma joins FITTR as investor and equity partner

Vieroots

In August 2020, Suniel Shetty invested an undisclosed amount in Vieroots Wellness Solutions, a Kochi-based healthtech startup estimated to be valued at around ₹100 crore at the time.

Founded by wellness evangelist and self-described biohacker Sajeev Nair in 2018, Vieroots is a pioneer in Personalised Lifestyle Management using epigenetic science, working with a mission to help people ‘Live Longer and Stay Younger’ through personalised, genetics-based wellness solutions.

“We are thrilled to welcome Mr Suniel Shetty on board to drive the live long and grow young movement, which is a critical juncture for the wellness industry,” said Sajeev Nair, Chairman and Chief Mentor of Vieroots, on the investment.

Shetty himself explained the appeal: “I could relate to the company’s core values and innovative thought process in the wellness category, hence the decision to invest.”

Proxgy

Suniel Shetty’s most recent and arguably most technically ambitious investment moves well outside the consumer lifestyle categories that define the rest of his portfolio.

Proxgy, a Gurugram-based deeptech startup, secured approximately $2.2 million in a funding round led by Manish Patel, with notable participation from Nikhil Kamath, Suniel Shetty, Kuldeep Mathur, and other investors. Founded in 2020 by Pulkit Ahuja, Proxgy specialises in IoT-based smart wearables and safety devices aimed at improving workplace safety and productivity, with a particular focus on blue-collar workers. Its product portfolio includes SmartHat, Sleefe, Lockator, Audiopad, AirHat, and BirdBox.

Following the round, Proxgy’s valuation reportedly reached ₹140 crore. Suniel Shetty’s investment came as part of an Angel-II round on September 18, 2024, alongside co-investors including Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Patel, Nikhil Kamath, and others.

The Rest of the Portfolio

Suniel Shetty’s investment activity extends across a handful of other ventures, each reflecting a different facet of his interests.

FTC (F…the Couch), India’s first online talent and casting platform, which Shetty co-founded himself, drawing directly on his decades of experience navigating the entertainment industry’s hiring and casting processes.

Sai Estate Management and Skills Institute (SEMSI), a curated online platform offering courses and certifications in real estate, sales, and marketing, representing a bet on India’s growing demand for structured, credentialed skill-building outside traditional academic institutions.

Klassroom, an EdTech platform that provides tools for communication between parents, teachers, and schools, including apps for parent-teacher interaction and dashboards for school community management. Shetty’s investment in Klassroom began with a Seed round in October 2023. Klassroom converted into a public company in November 2025, having raised a total of $4.14 million to date.

Regrip and Swen Entertainment, both backed through Angel rounds in 2023, round out the more recent additions to his portfolio.

Other Business Ventures Beyond Investing

Outside his angel portfolio, Suniel Shetty has also built businesses of his own. He owns Club H2O, a water adventure park in Mumbai, and runs the restaurant Little Italy after closing Mischief Dining Bar in 2010. He also runs his production house, Popcorn Entertainment. His net worth is estimated between ₹90 to 125 crore, built across acting in over 100 films, his restaurant ventures, his production house, and brand endorsements.

Family, Fame, and an Unexpected Startup Connection

Suniel Shetty is married to Mana Shetty, and the couple has two children, Athiya Shetty and Ahan Shetty. Athiya made her Bollywood debut in 2015 with the film Hero, while Ahan debuted in 2022 with Tadap.

Here is a detail that connects two completely different worlds covered on this platform. Suniel Shetty’s son-in-law is KL Rahul, the Indian cricketer who has himself built an active startup investment portfolio spanning fitness, fintech, and health, including a stake in Boldfit, HyugaLife, and several other ventures covered in our earlier coverage of his investments. Two of India’s most prominent celebrity-investors, now connected by family, both building parallel identities as people who back founders rather than just front campaigns.

Also Read: KL Rahul Startup Investment Portfolio: Every Company He Has Backed

Conclusion

Across grooming, fitness, wellness, EdTech, and now deeptech hardware, a consistent thread runs through every investment Suniel Shetty has made. He does not chase categories because they are trending. He invests in founders solving functional, often unglamorous problems, then shows up as an active participant rather than a passive cheque-writer.

Across all these investments, a consistent pattern emerges: he backs disciplined founders solving real problems, often outside glamour-centric startup narratives, and lets valuation be a consequence, not the starting point.