A YOUNG entrepreneur has spoken of her delight after securing investment from two of the country’s best known tycoons on TV show Dragon’s Den.

Former Wensleydale School pupil Sarah Sleightholm and her fledgling fashion business partner Beth Chilton said they were grilled for 90 minutes by the investors before securing £78,000 from Peter Jones and Deborah Meadon.

Ms Sleighthom, 27, of Hawes, North Yorkshire, said the cash injection would enable them to push their occasion-wear brand Hope and Ivy and Alter, a workwear line, to an array of high street outlets.

Ms Sleightholm, who studied art and design at York College and fashion design at Northumbria University, said: “It was nerve-wracking, but the sales figures we had done spoke a lot. If we didn’t get investment it would have been horrible, but we really believed in the product. My family are absolutely over the moon, and as it isn’t often someone from Hawes is on TV people watched it in the pub. Everybody in the area is really proud.”

Hours after becoming engaged to her boyfriend, Alex, she watched the show with family and friends at her family home, “from behind a cushion”. She said having watched the show for many years and seen many ventures dismissed, she had to battle to control her nerves.

After telling the investors the brands had achieved £530,000 of sales, with a 28 per cent profit margin since being launched last October, fashion retail guru Touker Suleyman told the pair they had been “lucky”, while Peter Jones described the colours of some of the clothes as “dour”.

Despite the initial criticisms, both men, Ms Meadon and Sarah Willingham made offers to buy a stake in the brands, before Ms Sleightholm and Ms Chilton negotiated a deal which saw them agree to hand over 25 per cent of their firm, dropping to 20 per cent when they had repaid the investment.

Ms Sleightholm has set up a base for the firm in London and following the show is setting up meetings to pitch the ranges. She said: “The dragons’ contacts are absolutely endless, they can open lots of new doors. We have had a lot of emails come through already from companies that are interested in working with us. The exposure has been incredible.”