Susie Ma has been described as the powerhouse behind one of the UK’s fastest-growing beauty brands.
Born in Shanghai, she spent her early years in Australia before moving to the UK.
She attended Croydon High School and was just 15 when she recreated and sold her grandma’s body scrub recipe at Greenwich Market to help her mum pay the bills.
Today, Tropic Skincare has grown into a $100m+ revenue business and has won more than 450 awards.
Ma gained national attention in 2011 when she appeared in seventh series of The Apprentice at the age of 21.
It was the first year that the show changed the format from offering the winner a £100k job to a £250k investment for 50 per cent of the company.
Lord Sugar’s backing
The series was won by eccentric inventor Tom Pellereau but Ma’s tenacity and determination impressed Lord Sugar so much he invested £200,000 in her business to become her partner.
The investment allowed the young entrepreneur to move out of her mum’s kitchen – and she never looked back.
In 2023, she became the sole owner of Tropic Skincare when Lord Sugar’s agreed to sell her back his stake.
Staff numbers have grown to more than 250, while Tropical Skincare’s ambassadors now top 20,000.
Susie Ma will be a guest Dragon on Dragons’ Den
The company’s natural, organic, and clinically proven formulations are freshly made in their Surrey premises and certified by COSMOS and The Vegan Society.
Ma, who is now 37, explained that she’s always been purpose-led.
“Over the years, my goal has always been pretty simple,” she said. “To prove business can be a force for good. That belief has shaped everything we’ve built.”
She donates 10 per cent of profits to charities and good causes, including funding more than 7 million days of education and planting hundreds of thousands of trees.
The company also grows its own coral nursery on the Great Barrier Reef and has committed to double carbon offsetting.
Motherhood
In 2024 she became a mum when she gave birth to Sienna, who tipped the scales at 8lbs.
She told her 45k followers on Instagram that her daughter has filled her life with ‘magic, mischief, and more joy than words can hold’.
When the BBC approached her to be a guest Dragon on Dragons’ Den along with Jenna Meek, Gary Neville and Tinie Tempah, she said she gave ‘one of the quickest yeses of my life’.
Explaining what viewers can expect when she appears as a guest Dragon this week she said: “I’m here to back the bold – the next generation of change-makers building businesses with purpose, creativity and courage. I’m so excited to help brilliant founders bring their dreams to life.”
- Susie Ma will be appearing on Dragons’ Den on February 12th on BBC One.