Levi Roots secured investment for Reggae Reggae Sauce on Dragons' Den in 2007.
Roots, whose real name is Keith Valentine Graham, appeared on the programme with his Caribbean jerk barbecue sauce. He sought £50,000 in exchange for a share of the business and reached a deal with Peter Jones and Richard Farleigh.
The sauce was linked to Roots’s musical and Caribbean heritage, and the pitch became one of the programme’s best-known success stories. After the appearance, the brand expanded from a single sauce into a wider range of Caribbean food products, books, restaurants, and licensing ventures.
The deal is often remembered as an example of how television exposure can accelerate a consumer brand. It is important not to confuse the original pitch with every later arrangement: the widely reported Dragons' Den investment involved Peter Jones and Richard Farleigh, while the brand’s later commercial development involved additional partners and distribution.