Dragons' Den star turns Gener8 into £36m data-control empire after asking for £60k

Sam Jones has transformed his data-control company Gener8 into a £36 million business after asking the Dragons on BBC's Dragons' Den for £60,000 for a 10% stake in 2021. Jones, who left Red Bull to pursue a mission of helping people gain more control over their data, pitched Gener8 as a platform that lets users earn from their data and push back against ads and trackers.

On the show, Jones drew offers from several Dragons, ultimately partnering with Touker Suleyman and Peter Jones. After filming, a call from Suleyman placed Tej Lalvani on the line, and Lalvani offered to invest £300,000 to join the journey, even though he had not been one of the original investors in the Den. Jones recalled the moment as surreal, saying Lalvani watched the pitch again and decided he could not miss the deal. Jones also noted that other high-profile supporters, including Harry Redknapp, Tinie Tempah, and Chris Gayle, later became involved as the company grew.

Gener8 now markets an ecosystem that includes an app, a browser extension, and tools named Genie and Sentinel. The firm says the platform lets users control how their data is used and to earn real-world rewards while blocking ads, trackers, and cookies. Gener8’s public profile highlights roughly 20,300 followers on Instagram, where the bio promotes data control and rewards, underscoring the company’s consumer-facing push in a crowded digital-privacy space.

Four years after the Den appearance, Gener8’s trajectory has shifted from a single pitch to a fast-growing business. Jones says revenue this year has grown by more than 500%, and the team is pursuing ambitious goals, including unicorn status, as it expands its product reach and international footprint. The company was founded in 2018 after Jones left Red Bull, and its leadership emphasizes a shift in the data economy, arguing that individuals should own and monetize the data they generate in their daily online activity rather than surrender it to platforms without compensation.

Dragons' Den remains a key storyline in Gener8’s brand-building, with the show airing on BBC One and available to stream on iPlayer. Jones notes that the Den exposure, combined with subsequent investor support, has helped the company attract corporate partners and grow its partnerships with consumer brands that want to position themselves around data control and digital privacy, a topic of increasing consumer concern as online tracking intensifies.