Whatever Happened To SoaPen After Shark Tank?

There have been a whole bunch of products dedicated to keeping kids clean and healthy presented on "Shark Tank" throughout its extensive run. From newfangled kid-friendly liquid bandages to super-fresh and organic baby food, making parents' lives easier can be a goldmine for creative entrepreneurs with the right idea. 

So it was with Amanat Anand and Shubham Issar, inventors of the SoaPen. The duo teamed up after meeting at the Parsons School of Design in New York. Following college graduation, they created SoaPen in 2015 for UNICEF's Wearables for Good Challenge. They were inspired to make something to encourage kids to wash their hands for the universally recommended amount of time after learning that poor child mortality rates worldwide are connected to simple bacteria and viruses that can be eradicated with washing up. Thus, the SoaPen team created what's essentially a long-lasting soap crayon. It lets kids doodle on themselves, and the formula won't wash off until the correct amount of time has lapsed, leaving nothing behind but clean hands and a fresh, pleasant smell.

Issar and Anand were ultimately victorious in the Wearables for Good Challenge; they were one of two successful finalists in a field of 250 competitors. Winning netted them a $15,000 grant, which they used to launch a beta version of SoaPen in 2019. A magazine article and a fundraiser later, they felt they needed an investor to take the brand to the next level and hit up "Shark Tank" for extra funds. This ultimately gained them the interest of one shark who nearly passed on the product before jumping aboard. But are they still cleaning up since their time on "Shark Tank"?

Popping up in Season 13, Episode 4 in February 2022, Amanat Anand and Shubham Issar explained that they'd made $85,000 in sales during SoaPen's lifetime — all of this without a marketing budget or additional funding. Later, landing an article in Real Simple magazine launched SoaPen into the limelight; subsequent fundraising on Kickstarter drew an extra $28,460. At the time of their episode's taping, they had only started to dip their toes into online advertising. SoaPens only cost $4 to make and retail for $14.99 for a pack of three. Each pen gives the user 100 trips to the sink or tub. The SoaPen team wanted $100,000 for a 10% stake in the company.

Mark Cuban, Robert Herjavec, and Kevin O'Leary were bemused by Anand and Issar's lack of advertising and marketing know-how, which caused them to leave the table. However, Cuban encouraged them to hammer the social media world to get their names out there. Lori Greiner liked the idea of SoaPen but felt the company was too young for her to jump aboard. That left SoaPen with guest shark Nirav Tolia. 

He admitted he saw something of himself in them and liked the product but believed they needed more time in a mentorship situation, so he was also out. Just as Anand and Issar left the room for their post-appearance interviews, thinking they'd departed without a deal, Tolia began having second thoughts. He sought out Anand and Issar, offering up the help and expertise of his wife, and was willing to give them what they wanted but requested a $1 royalty on every unit sold until he earned back his investment. Team SoaPen took the deal.

Amanat Anand and Shubham Issar definitely benefitted from the "Shark Tank" effect at first. SoaPen sold out of its in-stock products the night the episode aired but bounced back with restocks. It looked like being on the show provided the company with a springboard for further growth. An Amazon storefront opened in 2022 and continues to operate to this day. Buying options were expanded to include bulk wholesalers and offer an educator's discount program for teachers on their official website. SoaPen also began publishing a blog through its website, although at press time it has not been updated since November 2023.

In addition to getting press attention in Forbes magazine and Parents magazine, among others, Team SoaPen took Mark Cuban's advice and established itself on social media; the TikTok account has 3 million likes and over 21,000 followers, although its Instagram has less than 10,000 followers — and neither has been updated since 2022 and 2023, respectively. Its feed on X (formerly Twitter) has less than 250 followers and has also been silent since late 2023. A reel created on Facebook in March 2023 gained 2 million views, and it has over 1,000 followers there, but the company's page was updated only three times in all of 2024. 

The status of SoaPen's deal with Nirav Tolia remains unknown at press time, but as of February 2025, SoaPen is still selling its wares both on its official website and Amazon. Consumers currently have a choice between two products on the latter: they can snag a three-pack of SoaPens at $24.99 plus shipping, a three-pack of seamless socks, also for $24.99. The three-pack of pens maintains a 4.1 rating with over 750 reviews. A children's book by Shubham Issar, called "Alpy's Sneeze: Learning the Power of Handwashing," is also available at Amazon for $14.99.

The same options are available at the official SoaPen site, where in addition to the original sets of pens and socks, the company offers bundles containing the pens and the book, the socks and the book, or all three. A limited edition five-pack of SoaPens, featuring the three original pens in green (pear-scented), blue (berry-scented), and orange (tangerine-scented), along with new pens in pink (strawberry-scented) and purple (grape-scented), is listed as sold out. SoaPen also stopped selling its set of kid-friendly hand sanitizing gels.

The future of SoaPen is currently a big question mark. Because of the recent inactivity on the company's social media accounts, it's hard to guess where the business might go next. Although the company's products were available for a time at the Whitney Museum gift shop in New York City, they're no longer available there and don't appear to have a significant presence with any brick-and-mortar retailers. However, the website and Amazon store still remain stocked with pens, socks and books, though some items are sold out on the official webpage. 

Time will tell if they end up moving forward or if this is the final goodbye for SoaPen. If they stay afloat, presumably more colors and more products will eventually be added. Perhaps extra sock combinations will be added as well. The company did advertise on a billboard in Times Square for a week in summer 2024, but there's no saying which direction their advertising will go in or if they even have the funds to advertise. At the moment, all fans can do is speculate — and enjoy SoaPen while it's still being manufactured. With any luck, they'll restock, expand, and update their social media  even after so much downtime.