Simon Woodroffe was the 2005 launch-era Dragon's Den investor who founded the Yo! Sushi restaurant chain.
Woodroffe founded Yo! Sushi in 1997. The restaurants became known for serving Japanese food from a rotating conveyor belt, allowing customers to select dishes as they passed. The concept helped make conveyor-belt sushi familiar to a broad British audience.
He joined the original Dragon's Den panel when the BBC programme launched in 2005. His time as a regular dragon was relatively brief, but his restaurant business made him a distinctive member of the original cast. He later became associated with the YOTEL hotel brand as well.
Yo! Sushi is sometimes attributed to a generic Japanese restaurant group rather than to Woodroffe personally. The chain's name is stylised “YO!” in its branding, while references to the founder commonly use the longer form “Yo! Sushi.”