Susie Ma, the founder of Tropic Skincare, is returning to the BBC’s Dragons’ Den as a permanent investor. She appeared as a guest Dragon earlier this year and will now sit alongside Peter Jones, Deborah Meaden and Steven Bartlett for the coming series.
Ma takes the seat left by Touker Suleyman, who has stepped away from the programme to concentrate on Lipstick London, a beauty brand he has recently launched. The long-running BBC show sees entrepreneurs pitch their products and businesses to wealthy investors in return for funding.
Ma said she was “so excited to be returning” and that what drew her back was the chance to support founders doing things differently, particularly those who often miss out on investment. After more than 20 years running Tropic, she said she has seen business do real good. Her approach in the Den will weigh the numbers alongside purpose: a deal still has to make financial sense, but she wants founders who aim for impact beyond profit. She also said she wants to give others the belief someone once gave her. She first sat in the Den as a guest earlier this year, and producers have now made that arrangement permanent for the new series.
Her own story is well known in British business. Ma started Tropic on a stall at Greenwich Market in London at the age of 15. The brand is now worth £68m, employs 275 people and has more than 25,000 ambassadors across the UK. She took part in series seven of The Apprentice in 2011, where Lord Sugar offered her £200,000, and she has since bought him out to regain full ownership. The company has recently reopened its headquarters in Croydon as the first phase of a £5m investment, and it signed television presenter Alison Hammond as its first celebrity ambassador. Ma has also been named on the Sunday Times 40 Under 40 list.
Other familiar faces will appear this series. Jenna Meek, chief executive of Refy, returns as a guest Dragon, as does former footballer Gary Neville. Jamie Laing, founder of Candy Kittens and co-host of the Great Company podcast, joins the panel as a guest Dragon for the very first time this series. Meek’s own brand, Refy, has been pushing into the European Union through Sephora.
