There's a particular kind of pride that comes from watching someone you supported in the early days walk into a room full of investors and absolutely own it. This year, four Foundervine alumni did exactly that, stepping into Dragons' Den and proving what we already knew: great ideas just need the right support to become great businesses.
Long before the cameras rolled, we remember the sisters pitching at our Immerse Early Stage Accelerator (run in partnership with Lloyds) back in August 2024 - where they walked away with the top prize at Demo Day. Since then, that early promise has turned into a £50,000 investment from guest Dragon Susie Ma on Dragons' Den and a fast-growing platform now serving over 20,000 parents.
And the story came full circle earlier this year. On 31 July 2026, Olivia was invited back to Immerse: Live at Lloyds, marking five years of the programme. This time not as a founder pitching for support, but as a panellist sharing her experience with the next generation of founders coming through, fresh off closing a seed round.
They invested time and energy into us before anyone else noticed, and it is one of the reasons why Cubbi is where it is today. - Tanyka Davson, Co-founder, Cubbi (source)
It's exactly the kind of moment we live for, watching founders go from being backed on Demo Day to being the ones inspiring the room.
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We remember Chester in the early days of Thrive with Sainsbury's, a little shy on camera when we asked him to film a behind-the-scenes clip during the programme. Being accepted onto Thrive with Sainsbury's was one of his key accomplishments that year and the support it gave him meant he could leave his advertising job and go all in on RAISE full-time, landing a new buyer in Saracens Rugby Club and a string of new retail listings along the way.
To know that being a part of the Thrive programme makes you a pioneer, is incredibly flattering. The most exciting part is, achieving the seal of approval, which validates the idea, and makes the opportunity feel limitless. - Chester Robinson, Founder, RAISE Snacks (source)
From those quiet, camera-shy beginnings to standing solo in front of all five Dragons and having every single one of them want in, that's quite the journey. In the end, Chester chose £50,000 from Steven Bartlett and Gary Neville, turning down Peter Jones's offer to split the stake five ways.
Eugene and his dad Ivor came through Thrive with Sainsbury's as a father-and-son team building something rooted in family. A hibiscus drink Eugene grew up watching Ivor make, turned into a modern, sugar-free superfood water. Back then, one of their biggest hurdles was the cost of producing small batches, the kind of barrier that keeps a lot of great products out of retailers' hands. It was the support of the programme that helped them start to work through it.
Producing a drink with zero sugar, low calories and no artificial ingredients truly gets us excited to disrupt the current flavoured water market. - Eugene Patterson, Co-founder, Revibed (source)
From that family kitchen to standing in the Den together was never going to be an easy pitch. Eugene spoke candidly on the show about his dad's heart attack earlier that year, and about the pitch falling on the anniversary of his late uncle's passing. In the end, Steven Bartlett offered £50,000 for a 15% stake, and Eugene and Ivor accepted.
Zoë joined us through the Survive & Pivot programme, delivered with OneTech as part of the LIFT initiative supporting businesses across Camden, Islington, Tower Hamlets and Hackney. From a one-bed council flat to the Den, Zoë turned her invention, a compact, leakproof portable toilet for kids (and now adults) into a multi-award-winning brand.
Since then, her journey with us has come full circle in its own way too, in 2024 she was up on the Foundervine billboard and back on stage as a guest speaker at Founderfest, in the very building she once had her university graduation ball in.
From a single mum juggling homeschooling in a one-bed flat to standing in front of five Dragons, that's the kind of journey that doesn't happen overnight. In the end, Zoë walked away with backing from not one but two Dragons, Sara Davies and Steven Bartlett.
Four founders. Four completely different products. One thing in common - we got to see their potential before the rest of the world did.
That's the whole point of what we do. We don't just want to spot the next big thing, we want to be there in the messy, uncertain, kitchen-table beginnings, backing people while they're still figuring it out. Watching them walk into the Den and hold their own is a reminder of why that early belief matters so much.
Congratulations to all four, this is just the beginning.
