The pitch
What walked into the Den
Alyssa Furtado, based in Kingston, Ontario, founded RateHub, a comparison site for financial products backed by its own mortgage brokerage.
She opened Season 11, episode 1, which aired in 2016, seeking $1,000,000 for 10%, a request that valued RateHub at $10,000,000.
After the show
What happened next
Joe Mimran and Jim Treliving teamed up for a joint offer of $1 million at 7%, better equity than the ask, and Furtado accepted it on air.
The paperwork never followed. By airtime Furtado said RateHub was self-sustaining and did not need the money, and the company instead pulled in a $12 million Series A from Boston's Elephant Partners at a valuation she described as many times the Dragons' implied figure, per a Queen's University alumni profile.
RateHub grew into a large Canadian fintech.
Our read
The Hub verdict
The on-air math is a founder-friendly outcome: a $1,000,000 ask at 10% met with a joint offer of the same money for 7%, trimming the equity give and nudging the implied valuation past the $14 million the Dragons themselves floated.
And then the punchline that makes the whole segment academic. The deal never closed, because by airtime Furtado said RateHub was self-sustaining and did not need it, and the company instead raised $12 million from a Boston fund at a valuation many times what was floated on the floor. Outgrowing a Dragon's accepted offer before the paperwork catches up is the rarest ending the show produces.
The Dragons' best offer became irrelevant almost immediately.
Worth knowing: The on-air agreement was real but never executed; the company chose a larger outside raise instead.
