The founders of UK start-up Kitt Medical (who will also be exhibiting at our sister event The Watercooler on 7th & 8th May), stepped into the Dragon’s Den on the 27th February looking for investment for their emergency response kit for when people have allergic reactions in schools and qualifying businesses. They stepped away with a £75,000 investment secured from Deborah Meaden and Steven Bartlett for 7% of the company.
Kitt Medical founders Zak Marks and James Cohen were particularly keen to be able to tap into Meaden and Bartlett’s extensive network of connections to help them build their burgeoning business.
You can watch their appearance here:
Kitt Medical’s services include a wall-mounted kit that contains a maximum of four adrenaline pens, (x2 of each dose), suitable for different age/weight groups to be used in emergencies, when for example, an allergy sufferer has forgotten their prescribed adrenaline pen or when they do not own one because they are unaware of an allergy. The service also includes online training, which has been completed more than 15,000 times.
Zak, 27, and James, 28, impressed Deborah Meaden and Steven Bartlett especially, who were drawn to the young founders’ passion for the life-saving capabilities of adrenaline pens to improve outcomes of sudden life-threatening allergic reactions and education around anaphylaxis.
Zak was inspired to start the company and develop the service as he lives with a severe nut allergy himself, which he discovered it at the age of 5 after having traces of peanut butter on toast.
And after seeing too many ‘avoidable’ deaths on the news caused by allergic reactions, Zak decided to try and tackle the problem he faced every day.
As the number of people with allergies and hospital admissions for sufferers rises across the UK, Kitt Medical has dispatched its Anaphylaxis Kitt service at more than 600 sites across the UK since its launch in February 2023. This includes schools, private businesses and hospitality / entertainment venues. Staff across Alton Towers Resort, Autotrader, Westmorland Family and law firm Michelmores LLP, can access these Kitts given that there is an occupational health scheme in place.
