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Dragons’ Den: Where to get the dental wand cat toothbrush, Sooper Books, Manta hairbrush and more
A luggage storage solution also features in the episode
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Your support makes all the difference.While the BBC continues to grapple with the fallout from an episode of its flagship business series Dragons’ Den, in which an entrepreneur claimed acupuncture ear seeds aided her recovery from myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) – a condition with no known cure – the show must, apparently, go on.
Last week, we saw a do-it-yourself henna brand secure the support of Touker Suleyman, while the founders of a lab-grown diamonds startup bagged a substantial £250k investment from Steven Bartlett. Tonight, four new founders enter the den, seeking backing for their businesses.
The episode includes an innovative toothbrush for cats, a free book subscription service for kids, a new kind of hairbrush that hopes to take on the Tangle Teaser and an on-demand luggage collection and drop-off service. Here’s everything you need to know about the businesses and where to buy their products.
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Manta hairbrushes: From £30, Amazon.co.uk
Motivated by his wife Dani’s journey through hair loss after chemotherapy, hairdresser and salon owner Tim Binnington was driven to develop a new kind of hairbrush that’s gentler on delicate scalps and on hair prone to breakage.
Manta sells two kinds of rounded and flexible hairbrushes, on its website and via Amazon. There’s the original Manta hairbrush (£30, Amazon.co.uk), which the company says is “ultra-gentle”, gliding through knots and tangles without pulling or snagging hair, and there’s the Manta pulse (£70, Amazon.co.uk), a completely waterproof vibrating hairbrush that massages your scalp and can be used in the shower. When our writer put the brand’s original brush to the test, they noted that it worked its way through tangles with ease, adding that it left their hair feeling “extremely soft”. As for the pulse, it was praised for being “brilliant for relaxing and exfoliating the scalp”.
Read more: Can Manta’s hairbrushes give me healthier locks?
Inventor Cat dental wand cat toothbrush: £19.99, Inventorcat.co.uk
If you’ve ever tried brushing your cat’s teeth, you know the struggle is real. Inventor Cat’s dental wand was launched by Victor Carpio in 2020 and takes the form of a toy designed to make the job of brushing your feline friend’s teeth easier and less stressful.
You simply fill the dental wand (£19.99, Inventorcat.co.uk) with your desired cat toothpaste, then encourage your cat to play with (ie, bite and chew on) the toy, resulting in the toothpaste being squeezed onto your cat’s teeth while the toy’s flexible bristles help remove plaque. According to the company, your cats are exposed to brushing for longer periods of time while using the dental wand, compared with using a typical cat toothbrush. Naturally, we’ve reviewed the contraption, with our tester noting that it’s “fun for you and your cat”, and the cat “did enjoy chewing and licking the wand”.
Read more: We review the dental wand cat toothbrush
Sooper Books: Sooperbooks.com
In 2020, married couple Simon Hood and Charlene Mitchell-Hood launched an online library of bespoke curated and narrated books for their newborn daughter Goldie. A streaming service for books, Sooper Books features children’s stories that range from five to 15 minutes in length, as well as episodic serials.
The couple began offering their stories for free online to all UK primary schools during lockdown. Sooper Books has since published more than 200 exclusive stories and audiobooks, and, while there is a £2 subscription fee for all 200 books, families still get access to 100 stories and audiobooks completely free.
Unbaggaged: Unbaggaged.com
In 2019, University of Strathclyde graduate Janani Prabhakaran found herself mercilessly lugging a suitcase around London and wondering why. She came up with the idea of Unbaggaged, a luggage storage service that makes exploring new cities easy and hassle-free.
Only available in Glasgow and Edinburgh, you can book a luggage pick-up by selecting your location on the website, as well as a return location and return time. The Unbaggaged drivers will then travel to your location, pick up your suitcases and store them in its 24/7 storage hub, where they’re tagged, so you can track them from your phone. Once you’re done exploring and are ready to pick up your bag at the agreed time, your suitcase will be there ready and waiting.
Visit Unbaggaged’s website now
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Missed out on last week’s episode? Catch up on all the businesses in our week-four round-up