Rajshree Upadhyaya | Business Remedies | Dadasaheb Bhagat’s story reads like a modern fable of grit and quiet reinvention, the kind that starts in a small village and finds its way onto a national stage. Born in Beed district of Maharashtra, Bhagat left school after the tenth standard to support his family, and took work that taught him the value of steady effort more than classroom lessons. That era included a stint as an office boy at Infosys where the sight of people working on laptops planted a seed of possibility; he began learning design at night and slowly taught himself the tools that would later become his trade.
What began as a personal climb became a product for millions when Bhagat launched DesignTemplate io to serve users who wanted professional-ready creative assets without the steep learning curve of full design suites. The platform is best known as an online design marketplace offering ready-to-use motion graphics, Premiere Pro and After Effects templates, illustrations, and royalty-cleared music, packaged so small businesses, creators, and video editors can speed up production and polish content.
Multiple profiles and interviews place the founding of DesignTemplate around 2018, when Bhagat began formalising what had been a cottage-roof ambition into a digital product. From working in a cowshed to building an MVP in later years, the timeline shows steady additions-product launches, hires, and growing traction-that made the platform credible enough to pitch on a national stage. The Shark Tank India appearance crystallised that momentum; Bhagat entered the tank seeking Rs. 1 crore for a sliver of equity and left with an offer from Aman Gupta sealing a deal of Rs. 1 crore for 10 percent that helped amplify both funding and visibility.
The exposure from Shark Tank brought measurable results almost immediately. Media outlets reported spikes in traffic and user registrations after the episode aired, and Bhagat himself spoke about choosing the partnership that best matched his growth ambitions and values. Observers compared DesignTemplate to a homegrown Canva for its intent to democratise design for Indian users, while noting its specific strength in motion templates and video assets that cater to the booming creator economy.
Today, DesignTemplate io appears operational and active across its website and social profiles, continuing to publish templates and engage with creators while positioning itself as an Indian alternative in a market dominated by global tools. That presence suggests the company has moved beyond a single TV moment into the harder work of product improvement, creator partnerships, and scaling digital distribution-an arc that makes Bhagat’s early years and the platform he built feel less like a one-off miracle and more like the start of a durable creative business.
In the end, the DesignTemplate story is about translation: the translation of a modest upbringing into technical skill, of individual perseverance into a platform that saves hours for creators, and of a local dream into a business conversation on national television. The company’s core offerings remain unmistakable templates and motion assets that let users move from idea to polished content quickly and affordably, and the work now is the incremental, everyday task of turning that promise into lasting product value.
Written & Edited By:
Rajshree Upadhyaya
