Cold drinks company Tuk Tuk Chai has walked away from a deal with Peter Jones of Dragon’s Den in order to pursue a crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube.

Viewers of Dragon’s Den on Sunday night would have seen enthusiastic entrepreneurs Rupesh Thomas and Alexandra Thomas enter the den on a Tuk Tuk a pitch their milky iced tea to the dragons.

After facing questions over the businesses model, they eventually secured investment from Peter Jones to help expand their business.

Although she didn’t invest, Deborah Meaden was impressed with the product.

However, despite securing investment from the dragon who famously backed the enormously successful Reggae Reggae sauce, the firm has decided to walk away from the deal and have instead opted to push their business forward with a crowdfunding round on Crowdcube.

Mr Thomas commented on the relationship with Peter Jones to question from an investor:

“In the end we mutually decided not to go ahead with the offer from Peter in the den and instead decided to do crowdfunding, so no Peter doesn’t own any stake in our business. We need more money than we were asking in the Den and hence decided the best route for us was crowdfunding as our lawyers too were pushing for this from the beginning.”

Tuk Tuk Chai is offering potential investors a 7.5% stake in the business for £150,000 of investment. The company has also applied for the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme and Enterprise Investment Scheme which would provide investors with between 30%-50% income tax relief and exemption from capital gains.