Product Update
Is SynDaver Labs Still in Business? (2026 Update)
Is SynDaver Labs from Shark Tank still around in 2026? The deal it made, the sharks who invested, and where to buy SynDaver Labs today.
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Christopher Sakezles walked away from Robert Herjavec's money on Shark Tank to keep his job as CEO of his own company. A decade later, that stubbornness looks like the right call. SynDaver Labs, the Tampa firm that builds synthetic human bodies for medical training, is still very much in business.
Most companies that lose their Shark Tank deal quietly fade. SynDaver did the opposite, and the reason traces directly back to the one condition Sakezles refused to accept.
The Short Answer
Yes, SynDaver Labs is still operating in 2026. The company sells directly through its own website and does not rely on Amazon, which fits a business selling synthetic cadavers and tissue models to hospitals, medical schools, and the military rather than to individual consumers.
It is one of the more unusual survival stories to come out of the Tank, precisely because the on-air deal never closed, and the founder's refusal to give up control turned out to be the thing that let him keep building.
The Shark Tank Pitch
Sakezles pitched SynDaver Labs in Season 6, Episode 28, out of Tampa, Florida, asking for three million dollars for ten percent of the company. He was pitching synthetic cadavers and body parts designed to replace live animals and real human cadavers in trauma training, surgical education, and medical device testing.
It was a hard business for the sharks to evaluate on the spot, a science and manufacturing play dressed up as a consumer pitch, and it produced one of the more contentious negotiations of that season.
The Deal That Never Closed
Robert Herjavec offered three million dollars for thirty five percent equity, then when Sakezles pushed back, countered at twenty five percent, and Sakezles agreed on camera. But when the paperwork came, Robert's terms required Sakezles to step down as CEO.
Sakezles refused. The Tampa Bay Times reported the deal was dead within days of the episode airing, and Sakezles kept full control of the company he built. He walked away from three million dollars of Robert Herjavec's money rather than hand over the corner office.
SynDaver Labs net worth in 2026
SynDaver Labs is reported by Shark Tank tracking sites to generate more than ten million dollars in gross revenue every year, a figure that has held steady across multiple years of coverage rather than being a one-time spike. There is no single, sourced net worth figure for the company as a whole, since it remains privately held and Sakezles has not published detailed financials.
Coverage from the AAAS journal Science and multiple Shark Tank trackers notes the company has explored the idea of eventually going public, which would be the first point at which a hard, audited valuation becomes available. Until then, any specific net worth number beyond the reported revenue range should be treated as an estimate, not a fact.
Where Things Stand Now
The refusal to give up the CEO seat turned out to matter. Sakezles kept building. SynDaver's synthetic tissue and synthetic body technology has since expanded well past its original hospital and med school customers into military trauma training and veterinary medicine, two markets that did not exist for the company back in 2014 when the episode aired.
That expansion is the real story here: a company that turned down a three million dollar Shark Tank check, kept its founder in charge, and grew into new markets the sharks never discussed on air. Coverage from the science journal AAAS specifically framed Sakezles as someone who lost the television deal and still came out ahead financially and strategically.
The synthetic cadaver niche is also a hard one for a competitor to just walk into. Building tissue and organ models realistic enough to replace live animals and real cadavers in surgical training requires years of materials science work, which is part of why SynDaver has held a fairly unique position in that market since well before its Shark Tank appearance.
So if you are asking whether SynDaver Labs made it, the answer is a clear yes, and it made it specifically because the deal fell through, not in spite of it. A decade on, the company that said no to Robert Herjavec's terms is still the name most associated with synthetic cadaver technology in medical training.
Where to buy SynDaver Labs
Still selling as of June 15, 2026. Check today's price and availability.
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See the full SynDaver Labs deal breakdown and term sheet →
