xStep (Vivatronix) became interesting because the pitch turned into a competitive process in HealthTech / MedTech. The founders walked in with an opening ask of ₹1 Crore for 1%, but the bigger signal was that multiple sharks felt there was enough upside to split the deal rather than let one investor take it alone.
Why this company got a hearing
This company only becomes interesting once you separate the television moment from the actual business underneath it.
xStep is a non-surgical, wearable medical device that uses targeted electrical pulses to stimulate the spinal cord. It activates dormant neural pathways, allowing patients with cerebral palsy or spinal cord injuries to regain motor function without invasive implants.
How the deal reshaped the math
The room ultimately priced the company below the founders' opening frame. An ask built around ₹100 Cr moved to ₹10 Cr, which means the investors were willing to engage, but only after marking down the assumptions driving the original number.
The negotiation math matters because valuation is where optimism collides with investor risk tolerance.
The room marked the business down from ₹100 Cr to ₹10 Cr, a 90% reset. That usually means investor interest survived, but only after discounting the founders’ original assumptions.
Final terms: ₹1 Crore for 10%.
Equity on the table matters too. At 1%, the founders were trading ownership for speed, validation, and access, not just the cheque itself.
The founder asked for a ₹100 Crore valuation. While the underlying technology (developed over 17 years at UCLA) is groundbreaking, hardware medical devices face massive regulatory hurdles and slow B2B hospital sales cycles. The Sharks brought the valuation down to ₹10 Crore, a necessary adjustment for the immense operational risk involved in scaling MedTech in India.
Where the leverage moved
Once multiple sharks stayed in, the negotiation stopped being a simple yes-or-no decision and became a coordination problem. xStep (Vivatronix) benefited from investor competition, which tends to happen when the founders hold enough narrative and operational credibility to keep several parties engaged at once.
Negotiation matters here because investor behavior often reveals more than the final headline ever does.
Multiple sharks staying engaged changed the room from a pass-or-proceed decision into a coordination problem. That usually means the founders gave enough confidence for several investors to see upside worth competing for.
Investors involved: Namita Thapar, Vineeta Singh, Kunal Bahl.
A live demonstration on Shark Vineeta Singh—where the device caused her fingers to move involuntarily—left the panel stunned. The pitch transcended business; even Shark Viraj Bahl, who did not invest, offered independent financial support to help distribute the devices to underprivileged patients.
What we would watch next
Invest does not mean the founders "won" the market. It means the room found enough evidence to back the company on negotiated terms. The next question is whether xStep (Vivatronix) can turn that room-level conviction into durable execution after the cameras stop rolling.
A useful verdict should help another founder sharpen their next room, not just react to this one.
INVEST. xStep (Vivatronix) did not “win” the market by getting a cheque. The room simply found enough evidence to back the company on negotiated terms, and execution now has to justify that confidence outside the studio.
- A stretched valuation only works when the supporting evidence is stronger than the founder confidence behind it.
- When more than one investor wants in, founders often protect value by slowing the close, not rushing it.
- The strongest lesson is usually not the pitch theatre, but how clearly the founders defended the business when challenged.
- A stretch valuation is only useful if the founders can defend the assumptions behind it with evidence, not confidence alone.
- When more than one shark wants in, the founders usually win by protecting optionality and resisting the urge to rush the first acceptable term sheet.
- In HealthTech / MedTech, category excitement alone is rarely enough. Investors still want evidence that the business can scale without the story collapsing under margin, trust, or repeatability pressure.