The investor panel in the British programme Dragon's Den is collectively called the Dragons.
The name comes directly from the programme’s title and distinguishes the British format from related international versions. Entrepreneurs enter the den and present their businesses to several wealthy investors, each of whom may ask questions, make an offer or decline to invest.
The panel has changed over time. Well-known Dragons have included Peter Jones, Deborah Meaden, Theo Paphitis, Duncan Bannatyne, James Caan and Kelly Hoppen. Because the line-up changes, “the Dragons” is the stable collective term rather than the name of a fixed group of people.
A common mix-up is to call the British investors sharks, but Sharks is the terminology used by the American adaptation Shark Tank. The original Japanese format used a different title and terminology. In the UK programme, the distinctive metaphor is a den containing Dragons who evaluate entrepreneurs and their proposed deals.