Digital legacy vault innovator Biscuit Tin may not have won investment on Thursday evening’s episode of Dragons’ Den – but it has secured £300,000 investment nonetheless.
Announced before the show aired, the round was led by Velocity Capital alongside Scottish Enterprise and private investment.
The funding will support product development and a series of hires.
Peter Jones, Deborah Meaden, Touker Suleyman, Sara Davies and Steven Bartlett declined to make an offer to Sheila Hogan, who founded Biscuit Tin to transform end-of-life management.
Bartlett questioned whether its tech team could compete with those of Big Tech companies.
The company securely holds valuable life information including account details, documents, post-life wishes, memories and more for clients.
Hogan named the Scottish company after the biscuit tin in which her parents kept all their important documents, notes and photos.
“The end-of-life process has become complicated and stressful as a result of the shift from an analogue to a digital world,” said the CEO, who described her time on the BBC show as a “tremendous experience”.
“Digital legacy planning is set to replace more traditional and outdated practices, and we want to be at the forefront of this in the UK.”
Biscuit Tin, which launched in 2020, is targeting both B2C and B2B markets, with a number of commercial partnerships set to be announced in 2022.
“As well as having an offering for individuals, we are increasingly speaking to financial services players in areas like life insurance, mortgages, and pensions, with a view to either joint ventures or white labelling our product so these kind of providers can add value and increase engagement with their customer base,” explained Hogan.
Biscuit Tin appointed an advisory board last year, with technology veteran Iain Mackay, former Scotland lead for Deliveroo, Andy Robinson, and former ZoneFox chief technology officer Matt Little now supporting Hogan and her team as Biscuit Tin plans its next phase of growth.
Mackay was recently appointed non-executive director and chair.
Kirsten Gohl, Velocity investment associate, added: “Velocity is delighted to be working with Sheila as she tackles a very real pain point; managing the end-of-life planning process through a user-friendly digital vault, making it simple and easily accessible.”
The company plans to embark on an additional investment round over the next 12 months.