Dragons' Den is back with a new series.
It has been 16 years since the BBC show started, with Peter Jones the only Dragon to have been on every season.
After four years and multiple investments in the Den, Dragon Tej Lalvani has confirmed that this series will mark his last before he steps down to devote more time to his increasing business interests.
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Supplement supremo Mr Lalvani is joined by fellow investors Deborah Meaden, Peter Jones, Sara Davies and Touker Suleyman for the 14-episode new series - filmed during 2020 following the introduction of new guidelines that allowed the 海角视频’s TV production industry to restart.
This series the Dragons' Den tycoons have pledged a record-breaking £2.1m on new businesses – an increase of almost ten per cent on the previous best.
And the stars of the show were in no doubt the pandemic had increased the calibre of wannabe tycoons who upped their game in terms of appearance, pitch spiel and confidence in front of the experienced business stars.
With necessity the mother of invention, pitchers arrived in the Den with a series of pandemic-inspired ideas, including a husband-and-wife team with the needs of NHS workers at the heart of their skin care business.
On top of this, a pair of tea entrepreneurs find themselves in hot water when their numbers are interrogated while an optical inventor catches the eye of the Dragons with his anti-glare glasses.
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Over the years, there have been numerous pitches with a variety of responses from the panel. Here we take a look back at 16 memorable visitors to the Den. As well as one who rather unfortunately for the Dragons never even got a chance to take a trip in the Den's famous elevator.
1. G-Hold
Alison Grieve went on the BBC show in 2016 with her G-Hold tablet holders but was . Since then she has continued to grow her business, winning two major deals that will see her products sold across the 海角视频.
The G-Hold holders are designed to reduce stress and discomfort in hand the hands and wrists while using tablets and mobile devices.
2. Drinks Biscuits
Founder Andy Murray after presenting his range of savoury biscuits, Drinks Biscuits - the first snack produced with the drink in mind.
Murray's business develops snacks with specific drinks in mind and his pitch proved a hit with Jones and Meaden who agreed on a £50,000 investment for an initial 25 per cent share - reducing to 20 per cent on return of their investment.
3. Landscapes 4 Learning
Cardiff teacher Craig Hill reduced Deborah Meaden to tears as he shared details of his ongoing struggle with mental health after he saw his youngest daughter get badly burnt. He told the Den how that led him to find therapy in carpentry and a new business making bespoke outdoor learning equipment for primary schools.
Tej Lalvani and Touker Suleyman made offers but it was Peter Jones' investment Mr Hill accepted. Mr Jones paid £50,000 for a 30 per cent stake in his business which was twice the equity Mr Hill had initially offered.
4. Snaffling Pig Co
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A food business that started with just £500 won a £70,000 investment. Andrew Allen and his business partner Nick Coleman managed to schmooze Nick Jenkins, the founder of online greeting card business Moonpig, into investing in Snaffling Pig Co.
The business, which makes flavoured pork crackling products, gave up a 20 per cent equity share in the company to Mr Jenkins, who described the snacks as "nicest pork crackling" he had ever tasted, but with the option to buy back ten per cent in the future.
5. Beezer.com
Dragons’ Den fans witnessed Scottish easy-app business Beezer.com land £125,000 funding from Peter Jones in one of the most tense negotiations ever shown in all of the BBC hit show’s history.
The Scottish tech duo team of Brian Smillie, Beezer’s founder and CEO, and Euan McCreath, its director of product innovation, nearly blew it with their unyielding pitch.
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At one stage they had four of the five Dragons interested in investing but one by one they began pulling away leaving the deal on a knife-edge.
In the end Peter Jones agreed to give £125,000 for a 15 per cent stake in the firm and a continuing stake of ten per cent when he gets his £125,000 back.
6. Look After My Bills
Henry de Zoete and Will Hodson, who met studying politics at Bristol University in 2000, .
The duo sold three per cent of their business for £120,000 to Dragons Jenny Campbell and Tej Lalvani - the smallest stake to have ever been sold on the hit BBC show.
7. Trunki
When Rob Law went on Dragons' Den with his ride on suitcase business, it was described as “worthless”. However, he went on to create a new category of consumer product, built a global business brand, received an MBE from the Queen and brought joy to millions of children all over the world.
Amazing when you add in the fact that Mr Law was born with cystic fibrosis and was told he could not expect to live into his 20s.
8. Tangle Teezer
Entrepreneur Shaun Pulfrey appeared in 2007 with the hope of securing an £80,000 investment in exchange for a 15 per cent stake in his Tangle Teezer business. The hairbrush, however, was ridiculed, with Duncan Bannatyne declaring “It won’t make any money" and Deborah Meaden saying it looked like a "horse brush".
Leaving empty handed, Mr Pulfrey persevered with his product as he self-financed the Teezer venture by using his savings and remortgaging his Brixton flat.
The bold risk paid off as the high-street store giant Boots was the first store to sell the brush and was soon followed by internationally famed salon chains Toni & Guy and Regis. The small business was a hit, with 35,000 brushes sold in the first year, and the company is now worth an astonishing £65m.
9. Cup-A-Wine
In 2009, the founder of Wine Innovations and packaging expert James Nash’s idea of plastic cups filled with a single serving of wine and sealed with a foil lid was rejected by the Dragons.
James was looking for a £250,000 investment for a 25 per cent stake in his business. The dragons said the idea was “tacky” and required him to rethink his idea to make it a success.
Despite being rejected, his invention was later picked up by Marks and Spencer, which used it for its award-winning Le Froglet wine. M&S said the product has been proved popular with train commuters and picnickers alike.
10. LoveRaw
Health food entrepreneur Rimi Thapar, from Altrincham, appeared on Dragons' Den looking for a £50,000 investment in her LoveRaw business. Debra Meaden loved the range of organic, gluten and dairy-free products and wanted to invest but when she asked for a 30 per cent stake in the company, Thapar, 34, said, ‘I’m out’.
Ms Thapar told the : “They were just asking for way too much. There was no way we were giving that much away. All that time I spent building the business, doing 20-hour days, I just couldn’t give a big chunk of it away."
Last year Blue Horizon Ventures signed a seven-figure sum with the firm as they look to expand.
11. FlipTop
A couple who work with elderly dementia sufferers tugged at the heart strings of the show's viewers last year with a poignant pitch in the Den. Philip and Lakshmy Pengelly, who run a care home in Llanelli, had a simple invention to make meal times easier for both staff and residents.
that allows the user to enjoy their dinner, or a cup of tea, in the comfort of their armchair without spilling it or tripping over the stand afterwards.
However, despite a smooth pitch which saw them looking for £10,000 to help with marketing and making the the item more cost-effective to produce - in exchange for ten per cent of their business - three dragons turned down the chance to get on board.
Sara Davies, who told the pair her grandmother was in a care home for dementia, offered the couple all of the money they had asked for, but for 25 per cent of the business.
12. Inspire to Aspire Events
Samuel Piri, the chief executive of Tamworth-based Inspire to Aspire Events, stunned the Dragons with his live autopsy demonstration.
Mr Piri pitched for investment from the panel alongside 'VIVIT', the firm's semi-synthetic human cadaver. Despite being unable to take a closer look, Deborah Meaden invested £45,000 in the company, alongside Peter Jones who brought the Dragons' investment up to £90,000 for a ten per cent stake each.
13. Kokoso Baby
Husband and wife team Mark and Lauren Taylor pitched their skincare business Kokoso Baby. The couple started the company in 2014 after discovering the benefits of raw virgin organic coconut oil on their baby's dry and sensitive skin.
Shortly after the firm launched, Kokoso Baby secured a deal with Boots after entering the pharmacy chain's Inspired by Baby competition for parents with business ideas inspired by life with their little ones. Since then, the oil also launched in baby retailer JoJo Maman Bébé and a host of independent baby boutiques around the 海角视频.
The Warwickshire-based pair secured £50,000 in exchange for a 30 per cent share with Touker Suleyman.
14. BrandYourself.com
The business provides software and advice to help individuals and businesses clean up, improve and protect how they look online. If you use the company, they will scan your entire online presence and look at any risk factors you might have, like risky social media posts and dodgy images or if you share too much private information.
The pitch from Nathan Evans, who went to the same school as sportsmen Sam Warburton, Gareth Bale and Geraint Thomas, and his CEO Patrick Ambron, managed to secure a deal of £100,000 for just a two per cent stake from Peter Jones. He valued the company at £5m, the highest valuation he had ever placed on a Dragons' Den investment.
15. Coconuts Organic
Cecily Mills is one of the who walked away from an offer and even rarer still are proven to have made the right decision.
Ms Mills came up with the idea for Coconuts Organic while working in London for fashion firm Oliver Bonas. Drained by the lengthy commute from her then-home in Brighton, she switched to a plant-based diet in a bid to boost her energy levels but found the non-dairy ice cream options on offer were not hitting the spot. So she decided to try making her own.
Ms Mills received two offers from the Dragons. Having initially asked for a £75,000 investment in return for a 20 per cent stake, she eventually agreed to hand over a 30 per cent stake for the full sum from Jenny Campbell. However, within two weeks of filming, she changed her mind and walked away from the deal.
16. Levi Roots
When Levi Roots - real name Keith Valentine Graham - bounded into the Dragons' Den strumming his guitar and crooning about his Reggae Reggae sauce, he had no idea how much his life was about to change.
Levi sold a 40 per cent stake in his business for £50,000 to Peter Jones and Richard Farleigh but could now sit on the panel himself as he has an estimated personal fortune of around £35m.
17. Brewdog
And one that didn't even get to pitch to the panel is one of the biggest of all time. BrewDog co-founder James Watt says his - and did not even make it past a screen test. In 2019, the Ellon-based brewer achieved revenue of around £250m.
Mr Watt, who started the business with Martin Dickie in 2007, said when they decided to look for investors on Dragons' Den, they were turned down by the BBC show's producers. They had planned to offer the Dragons a 20 per cent stake in the company for £100,000. Mr Watt, last year, claimed that sum would be worth £360m . A funding round in 2019 valued BrewDog at £1.7 billion, according to Bloomberg.