Data Deep-Dive
The Highest Valuations Ever Pitched on Dragons’ Den
Founders who walked in claiming their companies were worth £2 million or more, ranked by sought valuation, with how each pitch ended.
Most Dragons' Den founders walk in valuing their company somewhere in the low hundreds of thousands of pounds. A small but striking group have asked for far more, claiming their business was already worth £2 million or beyond before a single Dragon had written a cheque. Our index has tracked 67 pitches at that level. Almost none of them landed a deal at the valuation asked.
The highest valuations ever pitched
Housecrowd tops the list, seeking backing that implied a £20 million valuation in series 13, and left without a deal. We Q 4 U asked for a £15 million valuation in series 10, also no deal. Dare Snacks sought £10 million in series 12, and Yboo asked for the same figure in series 17, neither closed. Bee Automobiles came in at an implied £8.3 million in series 7, another no-deal outcome.
The one genuine outlier on this list is Yuv Beauty, which sought a £12.5 million valuation in series 22 and actually got a deal at that number, £250,000 for 2 percent, from Steven Bartlett and Sara Davies together. It is the only pitch on record asking for eight figures or more that walked away from the Den with money on the table at anything close to the valuation it came in with.
Why sky-high valuations almost never survive contact with the Dragons
The Dragons are, by design, sceptical investors spending their own money, and a multi-million-pound valuation on a business with limited sales history is exactly the kind of claim they are built to pressure-test. Housecrowd, Dare Snacks, Bee Automobiles and Yboo were all pitching genuinely ambitious businesses, property crowdfunding, snack manufacturing, car retail and fashion technology, but ambition alone rarely survives a Dragon asking to see the revenue that justifies the number.
Yuv Beauty's deal is the exception that proves the rule. £12.5 million for a beauty brand is an enormous number by the standards of this show, and it only worked because two Dragons, not one, were willing to back it together, splitting both the cheque and the conviction required to underwrite a valuation that steep.
What separates the deal from the 66 no-deals
A high valuation is not automatically a red flag on its own, plenty of genuinely fast-growing businesses are worth eight figures early on. What sinks most of these pitches is the gap between the valuation claimed and the evidence in the room to support it. Founders who can show real revenue, real repeat customers, or a clear reason the market opportunity is as big as they say have a shot even at a steep number. Founders who lead with the valuation and back into the justification tend to lose the room within minutes.
That is the pattern across 67 tracked pitches at £2 million or above: one deal, at £12.5 million, backed by strong enough fundamentals and two Dragons willing to split the risk, against dozens of ambitious asks that could not close the gap between the number on the whiteboard and the numbers in the business.
The bigger picture
The typical Dragons' Den deal values a company at well under £1 million. When a founder claims their business is worth £2 million or more, they are pitching against a strong historical pattern of rejection, and only one confirmed deal in our index has ever landed at that scale. If you are preparing a pitch with a big number attached, that ratio, one success against 66 no-deals, is worth sitting with before you walk into the Den.
The full list
70 pitches match. Figures reflect the deal as aired.
- 1Housecrowd
Season 13
£20M sought · no deal
- 2We Q 4 U
Season 10
£15M sought · no deal
- 3Yuv Beauty
Season 22 · Steven Bartlett + Sara Davies
£12.5M sought · DEAL
- 4Yboo
Season 17
£10M sought · no deal
- 5Bee Automobiles
Season 7
£8.3M sought · no deal
- 6Kimaï
Season 21 · StevenBartlett
£8.3M sought · DEAL
- 7Hair Syrup
Season 22
£6.3M sought · no deal
- 8Applied Language Solutions
Season 4
£6.3M sought · no deal
- 9Very PC
Season 6
£5M sought · no deal
- 10Unique Automation
Season 11
£5M sought · no deal
- 11World Gourmet Restaurants Ltd
Season 11
£4.5M sought · no deal
- 12Tango Group
Season 4
£4M sought · no deal
- 13Go Bubble Ltd
Season 15
£4M sought · no deal
- 14Bee Line
Season 15
£4M sought · no deal
- 15Brand Yourself
Season 16
£4M sought · DEAL
- 16The Magic Candy Factory
Season 16
£4M sought · no deal
- 17Crane Drinks
Season 17
£4M sought · no deal
- 18O'Donnell Moonshineand Liquor
Season 19
£4M sought · no deal
- 19Diso
Season 22
£4M sought · no deal
- 20Unpause
Season 22
£4M sought · no deal
- 21Old London Underground Company
Season 13
£3.9M sought · no deal
- 22Zigo
Season 8
£3.8M sought · no deal
- 23Omni
Season 22 · Steven Bartlett + Deborah Meaden
£3.8M sought · DEAL
- 24Luxe Collective
Season 21 · StevenBartlett
£3.3M sought · DEAL
- 25DabbaDrop
Season 22
£3.3M sought · no deal
- 26Subeo
Season 8
£3.2M sought · no deal
- 27Skyrota
Season 3
£3.2M sought · no deal
- 28Upside Down House
Season 19
£3.2M sought · no deal
- 29Baby Dream Machine
Season 1
£3M sought · no deal
- 30Baby Dream Machine
Season 2
£3M sought · no deal
- 31My Sea Safe
Season 9
£3M sought · no deal
- 32Redfoot Shoes
Season 9
£3M sought · no deal
- 333 rings Care
Season 13
£3M sought · no deal
- 34Parkour Generations
Season 15
£3M sought · no deal
- 35Look After My Bills
Season 16 · JennyCampbell,TejLalvani
£3M sought · DEAL
- 36Tan Organic
Season 16
£3M sought · no deal
- 37Pasta Evangelists
Season 16
£3M sought · no deal
- 38Gen!us Brewing
Season 18
£3M sought · no deal
- 39Saboteur Crime Prevention
Season 6
£2.8M sought · no deal
- 40Saboteur Crime Prevention
Season 7
£2.8M sought · no deal
- 41Outabox Ltd
Season 1
£2.5M sought · no deal
- 42Tattoo Erase
Season 1
£2.5M sought · no deal
- 43Fruity Faces
Season 4
£2.5M sought · no deal
- 44Shopbox Systems Ltd
Season 8
£2.5M sought · no deal
- 45Crips
Season 9
£2.5M sought · no deal
- 46Pro Gains
Season 14
£2.5M sought · no deal
- 47Feral Horses
Season 16
£2.5M sought · no deal
- 48Whering
Season 19
£2.5M sought · no deal
- 49Honest Mobile
Season 22 · Steven Bartlett + Deborah Meaden
£2.4M sought · DEAL
- 50Clothes Doctor
Season 17
£2.3M sought · no deal
- 51Cook My Grub
Season 21
£2.1M sought · no deal
- 52Igloo
Season 4 · Duncan Bannatyne + RichardFarleigh
£2M sought · DEAL
- 53FB 1
Season 6
£2M sought · no deal
- 54Sendmybag
Season 10
£2M sought · no deal
- 55Mamka
Season 10
£2M sought · no deal
- 56AMT Incorporation Europe Ltd
Season 10
£2M sought · no deal
- 57They Fit
Season 11
£2M sought · no deal
- 58Lostmy Name
Season 12 · PiersLinney
£2M sought · DEAL
- 59Liquiproof
Season 13 · Touker Suleyman
£2M sought · DEAL
- 60Glassbusters
Season 13
£2M sought · DEAL
- 61Drink Command Limited
Season 13
£2M sought · no deal
- 62Damson Limited
Season 13
£2M sought · no deal
- 63Techsixtyfour
Season 15
£2M sought · no deal
- 64Join The Pipe UK
Season 16
£2M sought · no deal
- 65Cheesegeek
Season 19 · StevenBartlett
£2M sought · DEAL
- 66Green Bell Packaging
Season 19
£2M sought · no deal
- 67City Maa S
Season 19
£2M sought · no deal
- 68Above Below
Season 21
£2M sought · no deal
- 69The Secret Garden Glamping
Season 21
£2M sought · DEAL
- 70One Hundred Group
Season 21
£2M sought · DEAL
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Every product ever pitched on Dragons’ Den, with deal terms, the dragons who invested, and where to buy them today.