DEN PAIR ENERGISED
Energy-saving service Look After My Bills co-founders land record Dragons’ Den deal of £120,000 for just three per cent share of company
A FREE energy switching service has landed the best ever deal on Dragons' Den.
Henry de Zoete and Will Hodson accepted a £120,000 investment for just a three per cent share of their company.
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After an intense three-hour session in the Den, the pair did a deal with Tej Lalvani and Jenny Campbell.
It's the best deal in the show's 13-year history, with the duo only having to give up three per cent of their business for a cash injection.
The next best deal was five per cent for £100,000 back in 2014.
Henry, 37 and Will, 36, are co-founders of , which helps families cut the cost of their energy bills each year.
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It takes the hassle out of switching energy suppliers.
Instead of manually hunting through comparison websites every year, the service automatically searches and switches for consumers who sign up.
The free service is currently saving users £253 on average on their gas and electricity.
Switching - how much can I save?
CUSTOMERS who switch energy companies, could save around £300 each year, according to energy regulator Ofgem.
But even though the benefits are clear, too few of us are making to move and swapping providers.
In fact, in 2017 just one in five families switched, even though it's something we all should do annually.
If you stayed with the same supplier for 10 years in a row - you'd have spent around £3,000 more than you needed to.
The session with the Dragons was filmed in April when Look After My Bills had 6,000 customers. It has more than doubled in size to over 15,000 customers today.
Look After My Bills currently only offers automatic switching for electricity and gas, but is expanding to broadband by the end of the year and other services such as car insurance in the future.
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Henry, a special adviser to Michael Gove in the coalition government, said: “We were apprehensive about applying to the Den and worried we’d get torn to shreds... But we were blown away by the positive feedback.”
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"Too often families are being ripped off in the energy market but I’m confident we’ll all look back in 15 years time and think it was crazy that people had to spend hours searching on comparison sites or calling up companies to get a good deal.
"And even if they could be bothered to do that in the first place they then had to remember to do it every year otherwise they’d be ripped off."
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Will said: “[Getting] offers from all five of the Dragons was very special.
"This year has seen all Britain’s biggest energy suppliers increase their prices, some twice, and the Dragons are backing a company that protects people against rip-off pricing forever."
Normally for £100,000, the Dragons would want 30 to 40 per cent equity.
1 in 5 go from Big Six tariffs
MORE than a fifth of energy customers in a collective-switch trial moved to a new deal.
They saved approximately £300 on average, said regulator Ofgem.
It contacted around 50,000 customers with the six big suppliers to tell them how much they could save.
Some 22.4 per cent moved tariffs, with almost a quarter over 75.
Ofgem said: “Many on poor-value deals rarely switch as they think it’s too much hassle.”
Earlier this year, businesswoman Rimi Thapar, 34, turned down a £50,000 investment from the Dragons, only to go on to run a company worth £1.7million.
But Jordan Daykin, a contestant on the show in 2014 proved to be one of the show’s most successful entrepreneurs ever – building a business worth £10million.
LoveRaw founder Rimi Thapar appears on Dragons Den looking for a £50,000 investment
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