An energy auto-switching service has received the “best equity deal” in the 13-year history of BBC’s Dragons’ Den.
Founders of Look After My Bills, Henry de Zoete and Will Hodson, received offers from all five Dragons on last night’s show (19 August), with Peter Jones saying the pair had a “real chance” of making the scheme a success.
Hodson and de Zoete struck a deal with new Dragons Tej Lalvani and Jenny Campbell for the lowest amount of equity ever given away – 3 per cent for £120,000.
Look After My Bills is a new type of energy switching service which “deals with the whole process” for customers. It automatically finds people the best deal from a supplier and switches them onto it.
Co-founder de Zoete, previously a special adviser to Michael Gove, said: “We were apprehensive about applying to the Den and worried we’d get torn to shreds like so many that have gone before us but we were blown away by the positive feedback. Tej and Jenny’s investment is an incredible endorsement.
“Too often families are being ripped off in the energy market but I’m confident we’ll all look back in 15 years time and think it was crazy that people had to spend hours searching on comparison sites or calling up companies to get a good deal.
“One free sign up to Look After My Bills and we do everything for our members, saving everyone precious time and money every year forever.”
A user of the service is automatically moved to another deal when their current deal ends meaning the customer is “always saving”.
Typically once a consumer’s energy deal runs out providers roll them onto standard variable tariffs, which are “significantly more expensive,” the duo said.
The free service, reported to be the largest of its kind in the UK, is saving users £253 on average on their gas and electricity with just a “quick and easy” two minute sign-up, according to the company.
When the show was filmed in April the company had 6,000 customers, now it has more than doubled in size to over 15,000 customers
Look After My Bills offers electricity and gas auto-switching but is expanding to broadband by the end of the year and other services such as car insurance in the future.
Earlier this month Energy UK revealed more than 3 million customers switched supplier so far in 2018.
In July just under half a million (477,106) customers switched supplier, up by nearly a quarter (23 per cent) compared to the same time last year.
The figures show 182,814 customers switched to small and mid-tier suppliers last month, which accounts for 38 per cent of all switches.
Previously the smallest amount of equity given away in the Den was 5 per cent by publishing business Lost My Name (now Wonderbly) in 2014 for an investment of £100,000.