The pitch
What walked into the Den
Mark Mate appeared on Dragons' Den in season 16, episode 7, which aired in 2018, pitched by James Holmes.
In the pitch, Mark Mate asked the Dragons for £20,000 for 35% of the business, valuing the business at about £57,143.
After the show
What happened next
Mark Mate struck a deal in the Den.
Our read
The Hub verdict
At £20,000, Mark Mate carried the smallest ask in this group by some distance, a reminder that not every Den pitch is chasing a fortune. James Holmes offered 35 percent of his teacher-marking app for that sum, which values the whole thing at just over £57,000, and Touker Suleyman took the stake. Small asks like this are often really pitches for a mentor with a cheque attached rather than serious growth capital, and the numbers that aired carry none of the froth some ed-tech pitches do.
The smallest ask in the group, and Suleyman took it.
