Cupbop did not actually take Mark Cuban’s $1 million Shark Tank investment.
That is the detail many Cupbop updates get wrong.
When founders Junghun Song and Dok Kwon appeared on Shark Tank in May 2022, they asked for $1 million in exchange for 3% of the company. The pitch turned into a bidding war: all five Sharks made offers, and Cuban ultimately agreed to give Cupbop $1 million for a 5% stake.
On television, the deal looked done.
It wasn’t.
In March 2024, Utah Business published an account of a Founder Friday event featuring Song and Kwon in which the founders said the Cuban deal “didn’t pan out” and that the contract was never signed. Song put the result more bluntly: Cupbop opened its subsequent stores “not with Mark Cuban’s money,” but with customer revenue. Kwon said the company remained completely bootstrapped. (utahbusiness.com)
That changes the story considerably. Cupbop is not a Shark Tank company that went on to grow with Cuban’s backing. It is a company that walked away from the show without the investment and continued expanding anyway.
Cupbop went into Shark Tank asking for $1 million for 3%
The numbers made Cupbop one of the more competitive restaurant pitches of Season 13.
Song had started the business in Utah in 2013 with a food truck serving Korean food in a fast-casual format. Kwon later joined him, bringing an investment-banking background and an ambition to turn the concept into a national chain.
By the time they reached Shark Tank, the company was already doing substantial business.
During the pitch, Kwon said Cupbop's bowls sold for roughly $8 to $10 while costing about $1.80 to $2.50 to produce, figures that implied a gross margin of around 75%. He also said same-store sales had risen 9% during the COVID period, when the company shifted heavily toward takeout and delivery. (ksl.com)
The founders valued Cupbop at about $33.3 million based on their $1 million offer for 3%.
The Sharks clearly saw something in the numbers.
Kevin O'Leary offered $1 million as a loan at 10% interest for 3%. Barbara Corcoran offered $1 million for 30%. Robert Herjavec offered $5 million for 28%. Lori Greiner proposed a $1 million loan at 8% interest for 5%, later joined by Corcoran.
Then Cuban made his move: $1 million for 7%.
Song and Kwon negotiated him down to 5%, and the televised deal was struck at $1 million for 5% of Cupbop. (deseret.com)
At the time, it looked like exactly the sort of Shark Tank outcome the founders had wanted.
The Mark Cuban deal never closed
This is where the standard Cupbop story needs correcting.
Some older coverage continued to describe Cuban as an investor in the company because the on-air agreement was presented as a completed deal. Even Cupbop-related material published shortly after the episode described the arrangement as an accepted investment. (qsrmagazine.com)
But the founders later clarified what happened behind the scenes.
According to Kwon and Song's 2024 comments reported by Utah Business, the contract was never signed. The $1 million therefore never became Cupbop growth capital, and Cuban did not become the investor the television episode appeared to establish. (utahbusiness.com)
That is the strongest evidence available on the question because it comes directly from the company's founders rather than from a Shark Tank database trying to infer the outcome from the broadcast.
There is a useful distinction here: Cupbop received an on-air deal from Mark Cuban, but it did not complete the post-show transaction.
So if you see a current “Cupbop Shark Tank update” claiming that Mark Cuban still owns 5% of Cupbop, that claim is contradicted by the founders' later account.
Cupbop grew without Cuban's money
The failed deal did not stop the expansion.
In fact, the company's post-Shark Tank trajectory is one reason the distinction matters.
Kwon told Utah Business that Cupbop remained bootstrapped after the Shark Tank appearance. The founders used operating cash flow to fund expansion rather than the $1 million Cuban had offered. (utahbusiness.com)
That fits with the company's own approach to growth. In a later interview with QSR Magazine, Kwon explained that Cupbop had deliberately waited before opening itself to franchising because he did not want the business expanding simply for the sake of expansion. He said the company wanted to have reliable store-level numbers before scaling the franchise operation. (qsrmagazine.com)
The strategy produced a much larger restaurant footprint.
By 2024, Utah Business described Cupbop as a well-established chain, while industry reporting put the U.S. footprint at 64 locations. (utahbusiness.com)
The exact current global store count is harder to pin down because published figures vary by date, geography and whether franchise locations are included. That makes some of the “200+ locations” figures circulating online less useful than they first appear.
What is not difficult to verify is that Cupbop is still operating and expanding.
The company's current website remains active, offering restaurant ordering, catering, rewards and franchise information. (cupbop.com)
Cupbop eventually took the brand overseas
The expansion was not limited to the United States.
Cupbop had already built a substantial international presence, particularly in Indonesia, before making another significant move in the Middle East.
In July 2025, Cupbop opened its first UAE location at Ibn Battuta Mall in Dubai under RMAL Hospitality. Retail & Leisure International reported that the chain had 64 U.S. stores and 160 locations worldwide at the time. (rli.uk.com)
The Dubai opening was more than a one-off international experiment. RMAL Hospitality said the first UAE store was the beginning of a broader rollout, and by January 2026 the operator was publicly celebrating the opening of a Cupbop flagship at JBR in Dubai with Cupbop founders Junghun Song and Dok Kwon present. (ae.linkedin.com)
That is a meaningful development for a company whose original Shark Tank pitch was built around becoming a national Korean barbecue chain.
The international expansion also makes the old Cuban narrative even less accurate. Cupbop's growth was not ultimately powered by the Shark's $1 million. It was powered by the operating business, franchising and international partnerships.
The business is still very much alive
There is no evidence that Cupbop disappeared after Shark Tank. Quite the opposite.
The company's current website still promotes its original Korean BBQ bowls alongside newer offerings such as K-Wings, while its ordering and rewards systems remain active. (cupbop.com)
Current promotional pages also list active Cupbop locations across states including Arizona, Idaho, Nevada and Texas. (deals.cupbop.com)
Cupbop's LinkedIn profile lists the company as privately held and identifies its headquarters and restaurant operations, while recent activity shows the brand continuing to operate as a restaurant business rather than as a dormant Shark Tank property. (linkedin.com)
What is harder to establish from primary sources is a precise 2026 revenue figure or an authoritative current valuation. Numerous Shark Tank update sites publish estimated valuations and revenue numbers, but those figures are not consistently backed by company disclosures.
So those numbers should be treated as estimates, not settled facts.
Cupbop's real Shark Tank story is stranger than the one on television
The easy version is that two Utah entrepreneurs walked into Shark Tank, impressed every Shark, negotiated Mark Cuban from 7% down to 5%, and then used his $1 million to build a national restaurant chain.
The real version is more interesting.
Song and Kwon secured an on-air agreement for $1 million and 5%. Then the transaction fell apart before the contract was signed. Cupbop did not receive Cuban's money, and according to the founders, the company remained entirely bootstrapped.
It kept opening restaurants.
It expanded its franchise operation.
It built an international footprint.
And in 2025, it opened in Dubai, with further UAE expansion following.
That makes Cupbop an unusual Shark Tank success story. The television appearance clearly gave the brand national recognition, as Kwon himself acknowledged, but the investment that viewers thought had financed the next stage of the company never materialized. (utahbusiness.com)
The most accurate answer to “whatever happened to Cupbop after Shark Tank?” is therefore not that Mark Cuban helped build it.
Cupbop walked away from the deal, kept its money, and built the next chapter itself.
