London mum earns £30K Dragons’ Den investment and shares her secret to winning 3 of them over
Reedah El-Saie founded Brainspark Games and took the educational gaming company onto the BBC One show
Reedah El-Saie won investment from both Sara Davies and Deborah Meaden on Dragons’ Den(Image: Reedah El-Saie)
A London mum-of-three landed a triple investment on Dragons’ Den last night (Thursday, October 23), impressing three big name Dragons over on the BBC One show with her educational gaming company. Reedah El-Saie, Brainspark Games’ solo female founder, gained the trust of Deborah Meaden, Touker Suleyman and Sara Davies with her AI-powered mobile gaming platform, with each of them offering £10K for a one per cent stake.
With subject specific games that align with the UK national curriculum, Reedah aims to promote ‘learning through play’, as more than one-in-three children are disengaged from learning yet 91 per cent play games. Reedah has spilled her secret on how she gave herself the best chance possible of winning investment from the Dragons – watch every episode and don’t slack on the preparation.
Reedah said: “Before I headed into the studio, I watched every previous episode of the show and prepared responses for every possible question. I was surprised at how impressed all of the tycoons were, and I’m delighted to have been offered investment from not one, but three of them.”
Reedah El-Saie founded educational gaming company Brainspark Games to encourage young children to learn while playing a video game(Image: Reedah El-Saie / BBC / Dragons’ Den)
From a non-technical background, a law graduate at the London School of Politics and Economics, Reedah founded the company “out of a personal frustration with an antiquated education system, not designed for diverse learners” back in 2021. The company specialises in culturally inclusive neurogames technology, and games cover subjects such as English, Maths, History, Art, Physics, Biology, and even Climate Change.
AI-powered and developed to maximise immersion, some of the games have augmented-reality compatibility and children will even be able to interact with Shakespeare. With the help of her new investors’ funding and expertise, Reedah aims to accelerate the development of I/GCSE-level games as part of their ongoing research and innovation efforts.
She said the three Dragons’ Den stars Deborah Meaden, Touker Suleyman and Sara Davies were enthusiastic, with Davies “who, as a fellow mother, connected with my vision of easing homework challenges for children and parents”.
Reedah El-Saie left no stone unturned in her preparation to appear on Dragons’ Den(Image: Reedah El-Saie / BBC / Dragons’ Den)
The company argues that the National curriculum lacks cultural inclusivity and climate education, with 30-34 per cent of children failing GCSEs first time round and many becoming NEET (Not in Education, Employment Training or Skills).
The platform, developed by multi-award winning EdTech gaming studio, will offer free games that can help BAME and neurodiverse learners who are up-to 18-40 months behind their peers, according to Brainspark Games. Co-designed by and for children, the games were developed with feedback from over 3,800 parent, homeschoolers, educators, schools, youth centres and community test users.
Also eight Innovate UK grants supported the company, including ‘Audience of The Future’ and ‘Design for Net Zero’ for its Climate game, and ‘Women In Innovation’ for its English game featuring William Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’
Brainspark Games partnered up with leading universities and corporates to build the UK’s first Climate GCSE game, offering educational content through interactive mini-games, quizzes, and customisable avatars.
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