The 2024 season of the revived Shark Tank Australia series will see Queenslander Maxine Horne and Melbourne’s Nick Bell joining Davie Fogarty, Jane Lu and Robert Herjavec vying to invest in entrepreneurs on the fast-paced TV show.
Horne was the founder of Fone Zone, one of Australia’s first mobile retailers, back in 1995, with the first store on the Gold Coast. Her motto is: “Think fast, run hard.”
She went on to form Vita Group, which listed on the ASX in 2005, which at its peak, had 165 locations across five business sectors, IT and communications to health and beauty, with more than 2500 staff, and annual revenue exceeding $875 million. The IT side of the business was sold to Telstra in 2021 for $100 million with Vita Group delisted last year following a takevoer by Sonic Healthcare.
Nick Bell is a serial entrepreneur, investor and longevity explorer worth more than $500 million. He wants to live beyond 100 and recently spent $700,000 on gene therapy.
While his first company failed, Bell went on to found or cofound several tech startups including Appscore, Removify, Lisnic, Primal, First Page Digital, Outsourcey, Trideca and WME, a search marketing firm he sold to Melbourne IT for $39 million in 2017.
The duo replace Dr Catriona Wallace and Sabri Suby, and join returning Sharks Davie Fogarty who found success with The Oodie wearable blanket; Jane Lu, founder and CEO of fashion empire Showpo; and OG US Shark, Robert Herjavec, who has invested more than $23 millions in dozens of companies across 15 seasons of Shark Tank in the US, Canada and Australia.
The original Australian edition of Shark Tank launched in 2015 with the sharks including Red Balloon’s Naomi Simson, Boost Juice’s Janine Allis, and River City Labs founder Steve Baxter.
Their role is as competing investors in the early-stage companies pitching for cash, supposedly cutting a deal on the show.
One of the best known contestants was Car Next Door, which was acquired by Uber in 2022.
Shark Tank Australia will again air on Paramount-owned Channel 10, although a date for its return has yet to be announced.
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