Yes, Numilk got a deal on Shark Tank — on paper, tied for the largest Mark Cuban had made on the show at the time, according to VegNews. In an episode broadcast in March 2021, co-founders Ari Tolwin and Joe Savino asked for $1 million for 5% of the company and walked out with a $2 million offer from Mark Cuban for up to 10%. Five years on, Numilk is still in business, still privately held, and still selling machines that turn ingredient pouches and tap water into plant-based milk. But the product it sells today is not the one it pitched. The grocery-store kiosk that the Sharks saw has given way to countertop machines for cafés and kitchens, built under a 2023 manufacturing agreement with Hamilton Beach, and the road from one to the other was slower and more expensive than the episode suggested.
What Numilk pitched on Shark Tank
The pitch, as reported by CNBC the week it aired, was a kiosk for grocery stores. “We built a custom machine for grocery stores where shoppers can make pure, dairy-free milk at the push of a button,” Tolwin told the Sharks. Shoppers paid $2 once for a reusable bottle and $3.99 per refill; the milk kept for seven to ten days. The founders said each kiosk brought in about $50,000 a year and cost $30,000 to build, a figure Tolwin said would fall to $15,000 at scale. They also showed a $699 stainless-steel countertop unit for cafés and a planned $199 home version.
The numbers they disclosed on air were the reason the Sharks hesitated. According to CNBC, Numilk had raised $12 million from outside investors and had lost about $7 million across three-plus years, on sales of $40,000 in 2018, $320,000 in 2019 and $400,000 in 2020. The founders attributed the losses to research and development and, in 2020, the pandemic. Those are the founders’ figures as reported from the episode; they are not audited, and Numilk has not published financials since.
The deal on air: $2 million, in two halves
The ask of $1 million for 5% implied a $20 million valuation. Kevin O’Leary, per Food Republic, offered $1 million as a loan at 9.5% interest over three years plus 5% equity. Cuban’s counter was larger and structured: $1 million for 7% of the company, plus a second $1 million as a loan at 3% interest that would carry another 3% in equity only if Numilk actually drew it, per CNBC. Fully used, that is $2 million for 10%. The founders tried to negotiate; Cuban, CNBC reported, did not move, and they accepted.
It is worth doing the arithmetic. The equity half values Numilk at roughly $14.3 million ($1 million for 7%), well below the founders’ $20 million ask, and the second million is debt with an equity kicker rather than a straight investment. (Our post-money valuation calculator turns any ask into these numbers; for how these structures move a valuation, see our guide on how to value your startup.) “We asked for a million dollars for five percent, and ended up with two million for ten percent,” Tolwin told Jew in the City in April 2021.
Did the deal close?
The record points to a real relationship but not to published closing terms. Tolwin told Jew in the City in April 2021 that Cuban “replies immediately.” The company’s own site still says it “secured one of the largest Shark Tank deals ever - $2MM from Mark Cuban,” which describes the broadcast rather than the paperwork. Looper reported in August 2023 that the deal appeared to have closed because Numilk was listed on Cuban’s portfolio website; when we checked the homepage of markcubancompanies.com on October 23, 2026, we did not find Numilk there. Savino told Tasting Table in 2025 that the company is “deeply grateful for our relationship with Mark Cuban.”
What is not documented: whether the final terms matched the on-air offer, whether Numilk drew the loan tranche, and how large Cuban’s stake is today. Neither side has said.
What happened to Numilk after Shark Tank
The first thing that happened was a Kickstarter. Numilk launched a campaign for a home countertop machine around the broadcast; Looper reports it raised more than $222,000 from 888 backers against a $100,000 goal, and VegNews reported pre-orders at a $199 Shark Tank special price with estimated delivery in August 2022.
It did not ship then. The company’s own backer updates, which it posted on BackerKit, trace the delay. In June 2022 it said the home machine, built by a third party, “will be delayed beyond the initial expectation of August 2022.” In September 2022 it said Hamilton Beach had agreed to manufacture both the home and professional machines, but “we don’t yet have visibility as to when the machines will be available.” In January 2023 the target was the fourth quarter of 2023, possibly slipping to the first quarter of 2024, and backers were offered “a full refund of your pledge.” Looper reported in August 2023 that some backers said they still had not received machines.
On March 9, 2023, Hamilton Beach Brands announced an exclusive multiyear agreement to manufacture and sell commercial and consumer appliances for use with Numilk pouches, with a next-generation line “expected to launch in early 2024.” Tasting Table reports the home model did launch in early 2024, at $199.
Meanwhile, the grocery kiosk receded. Numilk’s own history says it put its first machine in the Whole Foods in Paramus, New Jersey, in 2018, expanded across the New York tri-state area, and, when Covid hit, shifted to countertop machines for cafés. Tolwin told Jew in the City that the first kiosk broke after two and a half days and needed months of nightly repairs and five versions. Food Republic reports that the pandemic delayed planned launches with Kroger and Gelson’s. Tasting Table describes the post-show business as focused on home and café models only.
Who owns Numilk now, and is it still in business?
Numilk appears to remain an independent, founder-led company: nothing we found records an acquisition, and the 2023 Hamilton Beach release describes a manufacturing and distribution agreement, not an ownership stake. Tolwin was named chief executive and Savino co-founder in that release. (Food Republic also names a third co-founder, Lennie Friedman; the company’s own story page says “Joe and Ari started Numilk.”)
As of October 23, 2026, numilk.com is trading, with a 2026 copyright line. It lists the Numilk Home Machine Bundle at $149 and the commercial machine at $1,499, plus a range of pouches. The home machine is also sold on Amazon by Numilk (Numilk Home Machine). The company says it is “proudly served by over 500 cafes” and used by thousands of households; those are its own figures, and no revenue has been disclosed since the episode.
The founders behind it
Tolwin grew up in Detroit, studied at the University of Pennsylvania and earned an MBA at Duke, and was founder and CEO of Happy Tree Maple Water before Numilk, according to a 2021 Jew in the City profile. “I’m not an engineer, but that didn’t stop me,” he said there. He described the idea’s origin as the fresh peanut-butter grinders at Whole Foods: if nuts could be ground in store, why not milk? CNBC described both founders as serial entrepreneurs; we found no detailed public account of Savino’s earlier career and do not characterise it.
What founders can take from it
First, a big Shark Tank headline can hide a modest valuation: the equity half of Cuban’s offer priced Numilk below its own ask, and the rest was a loan. Second, the product the market keeps is not always the one you pitch. Numilk’s kiosk met real shoppers in a real Whole Foods and still lost out to a countertop machine that needed no store partner. Third, hardware takes longer than a crowdfunding page says. The company’s candid backer updates and refund offers are the most useful document in its public record, because they show what a missed ship date costs in trust, and that a manufacturing partner of Hamilton Beach’s size was what finally got the machine built.
This is an editorial profile assembled from the public record, not an interview. Sources: CNBC via NBC New York — This company is making a Keurig-type gadget for plant-based milk (Mar. 29, 2021), Hamilton Beach Brands press release via PR Newswire (Mar. 9, 2023), Numilk Home backer updates on BackerKit (2022–2023), Numilk — Our Story, Jew in the City — profile of Ari Tolwin (Apr. 22, 2021), VegNews — Mark Cuban’s $2 million Numilk investment (Mar. 30, 2021), Looper — Whatever happened to Numilk after Shark Tank? (Aug. 15, 2023), Food Republic — Numilk: Here’s what happened after Shark Tank, Tasting Table — Here’s what happened to Numilk after Shark Tank. Store prices and site status checked October 23, 2026.
