BBC's Dragon's Den was adapted from the Japanese business-reality show Money Tigers.
Money Tigers, known in Japan as Money no Tora, placed entrepreneurs in front of wealthy investors who decided whether to fund their proposals. The format supplied the central idea later used by Dragon's Den: founders present a business, answer direct questions, and negotiate over investment and ownership.
The BBC version was not an entirely new concept created in Britain. It was part of a wider international format that was adapted for different countries, with the investors and businesses changing from edition to edition. The American adaptation became Shark Tank, but that is a separate localized version rather than the Japanese original.
The title is sometimes confused with the US series because both shows use investor panels. The key distinction is that Money Tigers is the Japanese source format, while Dragon's Den is the British adaptation.