Columbia insurer to sponsor ‘Shark Tank’ this fall

Sept. 18--COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A Columbia insurance company will swim with the sharks this fall.

Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Co. said Thursday it will sponsor "Shark Tank" starting next week as the TV show moves to five nights a week on CNBC. The show starts airing in its new slot at 8 p.m. Monday featuring a video introduction by Colonial Life president Tim Arnold and a commercial for the 75-year-old Columbia-based company.

On the show, entrepreneurs -- some cocky, some nervous -- pitch their ideas to a panel of successful and wealthy businessmen and businesswomen. The panel of "sharks" includes such names as outspoken Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Daymond John, creator of the FUBU clothing line.

The entrepreneurs hope their idea will be good enough to win them funding and possibly a partnership with one of the sharks.

Colonial Life provides insurance products to more than 3 million American workers at more 80,000 organizations -- most of them small businesses, according to a press release from the company.

"Over the course of the fall sponsorship, Colonial Life and the show will connect with a third of America's small business owners," Arnold said. "This is a great opportunity for us to show business owners how we can help them protect what they and their employees have worked so hard to build."

The show will air pitches from previous seasons. ABC, which originally aired "Shark Tank" is expected to announce soon that it will produce a spinoff called "Beyond the Tank," which will show the next step entrepreneurs must take in getting their product into the marketplace, according to media reports.

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