Product Update

Is Tasty Mates Still in Business? (2026 Update)

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

Dragons' Den IndexUpdated 22 February 20266 min read

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Tasty Mates pitched a range of vegan gummy sweets and walked away with backing from Peter Jones after a pitch memorable enough that the founder's socks reportedly matched the Dragon's own. The short answer for anyone checking on the brand today is yes, it is still in business, and it has grown well beyond where it stood on the night it pitched.

The Short Answer

Tasty Mates is still trading. The brand has picked up major UK retail listings since its Den appearance and has expanded its manufacturing and product range, both strong signs of a business that has moved past the early, fragile post pitch stage.

It sells through its own website as well as through UK retail partners, giving it more than one route to customers rather than relying purely on direct sales.

The Pitch

Tasty Mates appeared in series 21, episode 8, filed under Food & Drink in our index. The founder pitched a range of vegan gummy sweets, a category that has grown quickly as more shoppers look for confectionery without gelatine, aiming to prove that plant based sweets did not need to compromise on taste or texture to compete with traditional gummies.

The ask was £60,000 for 20 percent of the business, a reasonably standard equity offer for a founder led confectionery brand looking to fund its next stage of growth.

The Deal

Peter Jones made the investment, putting up the full £60,000 for the 20 percent on offer. Peter Jones's long history backing consumer products with clear retail potential made him a sensible single investor for a confectionery brand with an obvious next step: getting onto more shelves.

A single Dragon deal often means a more direct working relationship, and Peter Jones's retail network in particular tends to open doors quickly for founders who move fast once the deal closes.

What Happened After the Cameras Stopped

Tasty Mates has expanded significantly since the episode aired, securing listings with Holland & Barrett and Ocado in the UK and building out manufacturing capacity, reportedly running its own in-line factory in Spain. It has also pushed into international markets including the US and Australia, and struck licensing style partnerships, including a white label deal to produce Paddington Bear branded gummies.

That kind of expansion, from a single flagship product line into licensing deals and international retail, is a genuinely strong outcome for a confectionery brand only a couple of years removed from its television pitch. Confectionery is a brutally competitive category dominated by a handful of large manufacturers, so carving out real shelf space against that backdrop is not trivial.

Why This One Scaled

Vegan confectionery sits at the intersection of two consumer trends that have both been growing for years: plant based eating and better-for-you snacking. That gave Tasty Mates a genuine tailwind that a lot of Dragons' Den food pitches do not have, a category that retail buyers were already actively looking to expand rather than one they had to be convinced to make room for.

Owning its own manufacturing, rather than relying entirely on a third party co-packer, also gave the business more control over cost, quality and speed than many small confectionery brands have in their early years. That kind of vertical integration is expensive to build but tends to pay off once a brand starts landing bigger orders, because it removes a layer of margin and a layer of risk that would otherwise sit with an outside manufacturer, and it gives the founder direct control over recipe changes and new flavour launches rather than waiting on a third party's production schedule.

Where Things Stand Now

To recap. Tasty Mates pitched in series 21, episode 8, asked for £60,000 for 20 percent, and secured exactly that from Peter Jones. The brand has since expanded into major UK retailers, international markets and licensed product lines, and by every available signal remains an actively growing business today.

For a confectionery brand that started with a single gummy range, ending up with listings at two major UK retailers and a licensing deal with a globally recognised children's character in the space of a couple of years is a genuinely strong result, and one that few Dragons' Den food pitches manage to match this quickly.

Where to buy Tasty Mates

Still selling as of 22 February 2026. Check today's price and availability.

Check price on Amazon

Affiliate link — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

See the full Tasty Mates deal breakdown and term sheet →