Product Update

Is Sopper Books Still in Business? (2026 Update)

Is Sopper Books from Dragons’ Den still around in 2026? The deal it made, the dragons who invested, and where to buy Sopper Books today.

Dragons' Den IndexUpdated 29 March 20266 min read

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Five pounds for the whole company sounds like a typo the first time you hear it. It is not. Sopper Books, better known by its trading name Sooper Books, pitched in series 21 with an offer so small it became a talking point in its own right, and the deal that followed made Dragons' Den history. The short answer is yes, the company is still in business, and it has grown well beyond the audiobook app it pitched with.

The short answer

Sooper Books is still trading and growing. The children's audio storytelling app has been used by more than four million families in over 200 countries since launching in 2020, and in June 2024 the company closed a crowdfunding round on Crowdcube, raising over 335,000 pounds against a 250,000 pound target.

The pitch

Sopper Books appeared in series 21, episode 5, in the Tech & Software category. The founder asked for just 5 pounds in exchange for 5 percent of the company, an unusual, headline grabbing structure that was really about proving the strength of the business rather than needing the cash itself.

A tiny cash ask paired with meaningful equity is a specific kind of pitch. It is designed to get every Dragon in the room to say yes on the money alone, with the real value to the founder coming from having five well known investors and their networks behind the brand rather than the 5 pounds itself.

The deal

All five Dragons backed the business for the 5 pounds asked, at the 5 percent equity on the table, a unanimous deal made history as one of the smallest cash investments ever agreed on the show while still delivering the founder a full panel of backers.

That structure gave Sooper Books immediate credibility and access to five different networks, from Deborah Meaden's retail experience to Sara Davies's direct to consumer background, without diluting the company by much at all.

Building the business the pitch was built for

Sooper Books positions itself around original audio stories from storytellers who have also worked with Netflix and Disney, offering unlimited, ad free listening for children. Since its 2020 launch the app has built a genuinely large user base, more than four million families across over 200 countries, which is a serious scale for a UK founded children's app.

The 2024 crowdfunding round, which beat its target by a comfortable margin, is a strong signal in itself. Raising external capital from the public years after a Dragons' Den deal means the business has kept investors, not just customers, convinced of its trajectory.

Why the famous 5 pound deal still gets talked about

Most Dragons' Den deals are remembered for the product. Sooper Books is remembered almost as much for the structure of its deal, because a 5 pound cheque is such an extreme example of a founder prioritising credibility and connections over cash. It only works when the underlying business genuinely does not need the money, and the years since have suggested that assessment was correct.

The story has become a useful case study in its own right for anyone pitching investors, proof that the size of the cheque is not always the point of taking one, and that five well known backers with almost no cost to the founder can be worth more than a much larger sum from a single investor.

Where you can find it

Sooper Books is available as an app on both the Apple App Store and Google Play, alongside its own website. As a subscription audio app rather than a physical product, it does not sell through Amazon or similar marketplaces, its business model is built entirely around direct app subscriptions.

Where things stand now

Sopper Books, trading as Sooper Books, pitched in series 21 for 5 pounds at 5 percent, secured a unanimous deal from all five Dragons on those exact terms, and has since grown into an app used by millions of families worldwide, backed by a successful public crowdfunding round in 2024. Few Den pitches turn a five pound cheque into a multi million user product.

If you came here to check whether the five pound deal actually worked out, it did, in a fairly dramatic way.

Where to buy Sopper Books

Still selling as of 29 March 2026. Check today's price and availability.

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See the full Sopper Books deal breakdown and term sheet →