Plant-based brand Omni has secured a £75K investment on BBC One’s Dragons’ Den – the highest amount a pet food company has ever raised on the programme.

Founders Dr Guy Sandelowsky and Shiv Sivakumar obtained the backing of their two ‘dream’ dragons – Steven Bartlett and Deborah Meaden – in exchange for 2.5% equity in the business.

During the pitch, the founders fed a Omni to a labrador to demonstrate its appealing taste, prompting Deborah Meaden to ask, ‘Is that dog inhaling, or eating that food?’.

“This is becoming a very interesting space, with a lot of people trying to own it,” Meaden commented. “I think I’ve heard that for the first time ever, they’re using lab grown meat, was that you that I read an article about?” Sivakumar confirmed it was.

Meaden added: “I love it. I like you. I think you’ve been pretty faultless so far, in terms of how you’re approaching a new market. You have to educate people, you need money to do that. But you’re in there early. You’ve got an open space. You are really impressive. Of course it ticks a lot of my boxes.”

“You have to educate people, you need money to do that”

“I’ve come to learn in the Den that there are two central things that come to form my investment thesis,” said Bartlett. “Which is, the products and how much I’m passionate about the space and can relate to the problem. Second one is the entrepreneurs. Because different entrepreneurs could have walked through this door, with the exact same product and I would have valued the business entirely differently if I didn’t think the two people in front of me were killers.

“I’ve come to learn from my Dragons’ Den investments that do exceptionally well, that the single most important factor has actually been are they killers? I think you guys are. So I have to try and invest in this business. I have to.”

After receiving initial offers, the founders negotiated the two dragons down from their offer of 3% for the joint investment to 2.5%.

Commenting on the experience, Sivakumar says: “As entrepreneurs, Dr Guy and I have watched almost every episode of Dragons’ Den. It was exciting and incredibly surreal to suddenly find ourselves face-to-face with the five dragons in their studio, sharing the story behind our pet care brand as well as the steps we’re taking to revolutionize the industry.”

Adds Sandelowsky: “Despite some tough moments, we felt incredibly supported by the dragons in the whole experience, and are beyond excited to see what happens next for Omni, with Deborah and Steven’s involvement.”

Founded in 2021, Omni creates vegan food, treats and supplements which aim to help prevent nutrition-related illnesses in pets.