Product Update
Is Rotamate Still in Business? (2026 Update)
Is Rotamate from Dragons’ Den still around in 2026? The deal it made, the dragons who invested, and where to buy Rotamate today.
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Rotamate pitched a rain cover for rotary clothes airers in series 4 of Dragons' Den, asking for 85,000 pounds for 15 percent of the business. Founder Roger Hines was just 21 at the time, and the brand he built has kept a visible presence well beyond its television moment.
The short answer
Yes, the evidence points to Rotamate still being in business. It has an active website and social media presence, and third-party sources describe the product as available with Amazon Prime delivery, though our own fact sheet flags it as not selling on Amazon, which is worth noting as an open discrepancy rather than papering over it.
The pitch
Rotamate appeared in series 4, episode 3, in the Home and Lifestyle category, pitching what sounds like a small idea that solves a genuinely common problem: a waterproof cover that fits over a rotary washing line so laundry left out to dry does not get ruined by a sudden shower. Hines asked for 85,000 pounds in return for a 15 percent stake, a relatively high valuation for a young, first-time founder to put on the table.
He got his deal, securing backing that public sources describe as coming from Richard and Deborah, most likely Richard Farleigh and Deborah Meaden given the pairing that regularly invested together during this era of the show. Deborah Meaden in particular has a long track record of backing sustainable, practical consumer and retail products, and a reusable, environmentally friendly rain cover for washing lines fits comfortably within the kind of portfolio she has built over her time on the panel.
What the brand looks like today
Rotamate still operates under the description of being the original brand in the rotary airer cover space, with covers marketed as A+++ energy rated and environmentally friendly. It maintains an active social media account and a dedicated website with a blog section, both signs of a business that is still being tended to rather than abandoned.
There is a genuine wrinkle worth flagging here. Some third-party listings describe Rotamate as available through Amazon with Prime delivery, while the fact sheet backing this post marks the product as not sold on Amazon. We cannot fully reconcile that from the available sources, so treat the Amazon availability specifically as unconfirmed rather than settled either way.
Why this one has held up
A rotary airer cover is about as low-tech and low-risk a product as Dragons' Den ever sees, which cuts both ways. There is little that can go catastrophically wrong with manufacturing or safety, but there is also not much of a moat once the idea is out there. That Rotamate still appears to be trading years on, with an active blog and social presence, suggests Hines built enough of a brand and distribution network around a simple idea to keep fending off copycats.
It is also a genuinely seasonal, UK weather-dependent product, which tends to produce steady, if unglamorous, repeat demand rather than a single viral spike that fades.
A young founder in an unglamorous category
Hines pitching at 21 stands out even by Dragons' Den standards, where founders are typically older and further along in their careers. A product built around something as mundane as a washing line cover is a hard sell for a young, first-time founder to make sound investable, since the Dragons generally want to see either a defensible piece of intellectual property or a founder with enough industry experience to convince them the business can be run well at scale.
That Hines managed to secure a deal at all, and then apparently kept the brand running for well over a decade afterward, says something about how much can be built from a genuinely simple, well-executed idea, even without the more dramatic technology or patent story that a lot of other Dragons' Den pitches lean on. It is a reminder that investability on the show is not purely a function of how novel or technical a product sounds.
Our honest verdict
Rotamate looks to be a survivor. The brand maintains live web and social channels years after its Dragons' Den appearance, which is a reasonable signal of ongoing trade for what started as a very simple, low-tech product from a young founder. The one loose thread is the Amazon question, where our fact sheet and some third-party listings do not agree, and we would rather flag that clearly than guess at which is correct.
Where to buy Rotamate
Still selling as of 4 April 2026. Check today's price and availability.
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See the full Rotamate deal breakdown and term sheet →
