The UK television show Dragon's Den is adapted from the Japanese business programme Money Tigers.
Money Tigers established the central format in which entrepreneurs present business ideas to wealthy investors and seek funding in exchange for an ownership stake. The UK adaptation retained that basic structure while replacing the Japanese investors and cultural setting with British entrepreneurs and Dragons.
The format became internationally successful because its dramatic moments come from a clear business question: how much is the venture worth, and what share should an investor receive? A pitch can end with an offer, a negotiation, or no deal at all.
Dragon's Den is also connected to the wider international franchise known in the United States as Shark Tank. Shark Tank is not the Japanese original, however; Money Tigers is the specific programme from which the format was adapted.