The Dragons’ Den investment secured by white label app startup M14 Industries fell through after the show was filmed, founder John Kershaw recently revealed.
Last month, the founder of the Manchester-based white label dating app platform appeared on BBC show Dragons’ Den, securing £80,000 investment for 20% equity.
Shared by Peter Jones and Nick Jenkins, the joint investment came after a bidding war between the investors, and put a valuation of £400,000 on the business.
However in a recent interview with Steve O’Hear at TechCrunch, M14 founder & CEO John Kershaw explained how the deal actually collapsed after the show was filmed.
Kershaw and his team were approached by one of their big clients, who wanted to invest in the company, and were willing to trump the Dragons’ Den offer by investing at a £1.5m pre-valuation.
This was at a much larger valuation than both the Dragons’ deal, and the six-figure round M14 completed last April.
As Kershaw explains to TechCrunch, he brought the offer up with Jenkins and Jones, who both decided to back out of the filmed deal.
After this, however, the unnamed M14 client who offered the larger investment round also pulled out “in favour of simply remaining a customer”.
In the end, the Manchester dating startup completed its funding round of around £100,00 towards the end of last year.
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