spotlight

Is i Teddy Still in Business? (2026 Update)

Still after i Teddy?We have not confirmed a current listing, so this searches Amazon for you.

As an Amazon Associate, Dragons Den Hub earns from qualifying purchases. Buying through this link costs you nothing extra and never changes which pitches we report as still selling.

Imran Hakim pitched i Teddy in season 4, presenting a classic looking teddy bear built with integrated media technology so it could play MP3 or MP4 files, an idea he came up with after being challenged by his younger brother to invent a better first birthday gift.

i Teddy had a genuinely strong commercial run in the years after the pitch, built on a licensing deal with one of the biggest names in British toy manufacturing.

What they pitched in the Den

i Teddy struck a deal of £140,000 for 40% of the business, backed jointly by Peter Jones and Theo Paphitis, after Hakim, then a 29 year old optometrist, won the Dragons over with the idea.

The commercial follow through was significant: toy giant Vivid Imaginations bought the global production, distribution and marketing rights for i Teddy, and the brand reportedly reached around £11 million a year in sales at its peak, built primarily on trademark protection after a 2009 patent examination found the underlying claims were not considered novel or inventive.

How far it got

The Vivid Imaginations licence put i Teddy into mainstream toy retail, which is a long way past where most Den products reach, and the roughly £11 million a year peak makes it one of the larger commercial runs to come out of a season 4 pitch.

The 2009 patent examination is the more interesting footnote. With the claims judged neither novel nor inventive, the brand's protection rested on its trademark, which is a weaker moat for a toy that is easy to imitate once it starts selling.

Where the idea came from

Hakim was a 29 year old optometrist when he pitched, and the idea started with his younger brother challenging him to come up with a better first birthday present than the usual soft toy.

It is a neat example of a Dragons' Den deal being used as a route into a licensing agreement rather than as capital to build a consumer brand alone.

Note: Status checked July 2026; company situations change, so treat this as a snapshot.

Published by Dragons Den Hub, May 2026.