This Dragons' Den judge couldn't get investment for her own company
Interior design guru Hoppen, who until recently was an investor on BBC's entrepreneur pitching programme Dragons' Den, has pulled a crowdfunding campaign for her homeware brand after lack of interest from investors.
Hoppen launched a campaign on platform Crowdcube at the start of May, hoping to raise £1.1 million for Kelly Hoppen London. The campaign was pulled last Thursday, around a month before it was due to close.
Luke Lang, founder of Crowdcube, told Business Insider: "It certainly didn't spark or inspire the investment she was hoping for, or indeed we were hoping for. The decision was taking to withdraw and seek funding elsewhere."
Industry sources suggest investors may have been unhappy with the business' valuation. Hoppen was offering 11% of her company in the raise, which would have implied the company was worth around £10 million. Sales in the first quarter of the year were £500,000 according to the company's pitch, but the one-year-old business was not profitable.
Lang said: "It's quite common. As much as we like to think we fund every business, we don't. Only around 50% of businesses that go live on the site reach their funding target. That number's been steadily increasing over the years."
"We were all expecting a lot more from Kelly Hoppen's pitch but such is life. Things don't always go the way you'd hoped."
Kelly Hoppen told Business Insider over email: "The crowdfunding process has resulted in a number of fascinating discussions we could not have anticipated prior to embarking on this journey; we have taken the decision that alternative methods of funding our future growth plans in the UK and internationally are more attractive to the business - this is a purely commercial decision.
"We are very grateful for the support shown by the many people who have pledged investment, both large and small. As a token of our appreciation, we will be sending a voucher giving a discount off purchases they make on Kellyhoppen.com."
The pitch has been taken down from Crowdcube but you can see it here.