4 Dragons’ Den companies to know, from Secret Garden Glamping to Nini skincare

We also saw an app for renters looking to get on the housing ladder, and a RuckRaft for outdoor adventures

As usual, a diverse range of businesses entered the den this week (The Independent)

The most fearsome business show on telly is back. After an eight-month hiatus, five scary investors have returned to grill a bunch of nervous entrepreneurs in the 21st series of Dragons’ Den.

This could be the most interesting series yet, with the promise of a shake-up to the formula in the coming weeks, thanks to guest appearances from footballer-turned-businessman Gary Neville and Skims co-founder Emma Grede, who will become the den’s first honorary dragons.

After Team Startup triumphed in last week’s opening episode, with every single entrepreneur securing investment, another four businesses were hoping to replicate their success in tonight’s episode.

Entering the den were the excitable founders of a natural skincare brand, a bespoke glamping company, a tech firm pitching an app aimed at renters, and the founder of a cross-country swimming startup, who bumbled his way through his pitch. Here’s everything you need to know about the businesses and where to buy, download and book.

The Secret Garden Glamping: Thesecretgardenglamping.uk

(The Secret Garden Glamping)

It was very almost a clean sweep for Derry Green and his glamping business. The entrepreneur’s lockdown project for his kids quickly turned into a lucrative business, and was a roaring success in the den, earning him four offers from the dragons. But, in the end, Deborah Meaden had camping business experience on her side, and Green left the den with the green queen’s backing. It was a pitch that left Sara in tears, and she didn’t even win the negotiations.

The Secret Garden Glamping is a luxury camping site situated in four acres of woodland in Lancashire. Every glamping pod is hand-crafted with unique features in each. There are 12 units in total, and every one of them contains a sauna, hot tub, en suite bathroom and toilet, wifi and electricity. The luxury glamping units start from £210 per night, with the most expensive pod (situated up in the trees) costing £295 per night.

Book now at The Secret Garden Glamping

Read more: Best glamping sites in the UK

Nini Organics natural skincare: Niniorganics.com

(Nini Organics)

Brother and sister duo Alex Nicolaou and Nicole Stanton were like a pair of giddy school children when they walked into the den and saw the dragons’ faces for the first time. Despite the dragons bringing up the size of the skincare market, in an attempt to terrify the excitable founders of the natural skincare brand (and Steven Bartlett calling its branding “wallpaper”), Bartlett, Touker Suleyman and Peter Jones all offered up their cash. Once again, it was the Bartlett-Jones combo that clinched the win.

With a range of products formulated by Nicolaou himself, Nini Organics makes skincare from mostly raw, active ingredients, ensuring your skin is “treated with the most nutrient-dense vitamins and minerals”. Handmade, vegan, gluten-free and organic, the range includes a botanical, herbal and floral rain mist (£37, Niniorganics.com), a hyaluronic acid face serum (£69, Niniorganics.com), a resurfacing face mask (£49, Niniorganics.com) and more.

The brand currently has a Dragons’ Den bundle (was £187, now £129, Niniorganics.com) on its website, featuring the brand’s three most popular products.

Buy now from Nini Organics

Read more: Best skincare for acne-prone skin, according to experts

Renter Score: Renterscore.co.uk

(Renter Score)

It was an interesting proposition from Jamaican identical twin sisters Chanise and Channett Thompson – an app aimed at helping renters get on the property ladder by giving them a renter’s version of a credit score. But with the dragons fearing the main financial institutions would have too much power over the sector, none of them believed the tech platform could work. However, it wasn’t all bad news. While they didn’t get any investment from the dragons, Bartlett offered to take the pair under his wing as a mentor.

Renter Score works in a similar way to a credit rating. You pop your last seven years of rental history into the website and get a renter rating. Renter Score says by creating and tracking the history of your rental payments, it’ll prove to landlords, estate agents, banks and mortgage brokers that you can pay your rent on time and thus a mortgage, too. You can then share your data with credit-rating agencies.

Visit Renter Score’s website now

Above Below RuckRaft: Abovebelow.sc

(Above Below )

It was a bit of a chaotic pitch for Will Watt and his outdoor activity business Above Below – the founder seemed to stumble from idea to idea without a raft in sight. Peter Jones called the pitch “awful”, and while Watt left the den with a lot of advice and some praise for Above Below’s product from Sara Davies, none of them wanted to invest.

If you were left confused by Above Below’s outdoor activity business, here’s the gist. Cross-country swimming is essentially a sport where you hike across landscapes, hills and forests, but then, when you reach a river or a lake and think you can’t go any further, you start swimming, then carry on hiking when you get to the next bit of land.

To help you take part in the activity, the company has made a bit of kit called a RuckRaft (was £174, now £139.99, Abovebelow.sc), a tow raft that lets you swim while also transporting your kit across the lake. The RuckRaft is a fully inflatable raft that comes with a giant dry bag, big enough to store a weekend’s worth of adventuring clothes and equipment. Above Below has put together hikeable and swimmable routes that you can follow, and the company also holds events throughout the year.

Visit Above Below’s website now

Read more: The best adventure holidays in the UK

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