Rachel Elnaugh was the first female investor to appear as a regular dragon on the British series Dragon's Den.
Elnaugh was an entrepreneur associated with the retail and gift company Red Letter Days. She joined the original investment panel when the British programme began in 2005, giving the first regular lineup a female business perspective alongside its male investors.
Her tenure was relatively brief compared with some of the programme's longest-serving dragons. Deborah Meaden later became one of the show's most recognisable female investors, while Kelly Hoppen and Sara Davies joined in subsequent years. These later appointments can make it easy to misremember which woman appeared first.
Elnaugh's place in the show's history is tied specifically to the original British panel. The question does not ask which female dragon became the longest-serving or most prominent; it concerns the first regular female investor in the programme's launch-era lineup.