Product Update

Is The Teabox Company Still in Business? (2026 Update)

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

Dragons' Den IndexUpdated 2 May 20266 min read

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The Teabox Company walked into the Den in series 12 asking for fifty thousand pounds and walked out with a deal. Years later, the trail runs cold under that name, and the honest answer is no, the business as it pitched on the show is no longer trading.

It is a pitch worth revisiting in some detail, because the founders' path after the show, a rebrand, a genuine celebrity backed retail win, and then a quiet closure, is a fairly typical arc for a promising but ultimately unsustainable food and drink startup.

The Short Answer

The Teabox Company is not still in business under that name. The founders rebranded soon after filming, and the company that grew out of the pitch, PHOM Teas, was itself dissolved in 2018. If you came here hoping to buy a tin of their tea today, there is nowhere left to buy it from.

That is a less satisfying answer than most of these pages give, but it is the honest one. The paper trail is clear enough to say so with confidence.

The Pitch

Philip Perera and Omar Farag, then students at Liverpool John Moores University, pitched their loose leaf tea business in series 12, episode 3. They asked for fifty thousand pounds for 25 percent of the company, a straightforward valuation pitch for a young food and drink brand trying to get onto more shelves.

Multiple Dragons were keen. Several offered the full amount at higher equity than the founders wanted to give up, which is the usual sign that a pitch has landed well. Perera and Farag ultimately took Kelly Hoppen's offer, fifty thousand pounds for 25 percent, dropping to 20 percent once the business hit a return.

The Rebrand to PHOM

Shortly after the episode aired, the founders renamed the business PHOM, taking the name from the first two letters of Philip and Omar. Under that name, and with Hoppen's backing, they picked up real momentum. Selfridges agreed to stock PHOM tea across its London, Manchester and Birmingham stores, a genuinely strong retail win for a business that had been two students with a kettle not long before.

For a while, PHOM looked like a proper Dragons' Den success story: a TV deal, a celebrity backer, and a listing in one of the country's best known department stores.

What Went Wrong

The investment itself broke down after filming, which happens more often than the broadcast handshake suggests. Hoppen stayed involved as an adviser even after the formal deal fell apart, which speaks well of the relationship even as the numbers did not work out.

Company records show PHOM Teas was dissolved in 2018. There is no evidence of the business, under either its original Teabox name or its PHOM rebrand, trading today. No live website, no current retail listings, nothing to suggest the tins are still on a shelf anywhere.

The Trademark Trouble

There was an earlier complication too, separate from the rebrand and the eventual closure. The founders had to withdraw a trademark application for the Teabox name after it was contested, one reason the switch to PHOM happened as quickly as it did. It is a small but useful reminder that a brand name picked before appearing on national television can turn into a legal headache the moment the business starts trying to protect it properly.

None of that trademark dispute caused the eventual closure on its own. It simply meant the company spent time and legal fees on a naming fight in its first year of operating at a national level, on top of everything else a small food and drink business has to manage.

Where Things Stand Now

So the record here is mixed rather than a clean win or a clean loss. The founders landed a Dragon, landed Selfridges, and then the company folded within a few years regardless. It is a reminder that a great Den moment and a Selfridges listing are not the same thing as a durable business.

If you are looking for The Teabox Company or PHOM Teas today, you will not find either one selling. That is the plain state of things as best the public record shows it, and it is worth flagging that this differs from what some directory listings still say, because the evidence here points clearly to a company that closed rather than one still quietly ticking over.

Where to buy The Teabox Company

Still selling as of 2 May 2026. Check today's price and availability.

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See the full The Teabox Company deal breakdown and term sheet →