Dragons’ Den’s Peter Jones has backed guess-the-accent party game, Accentuate, created by a brother and sister from Neston.
A total of 2.4m viewers on Sunday watched Graeme and Fiona Fraser-Bell leave the Den with £45,000 backing from the veteran dragon and they now have their sights set on establishing the game as a global success.
After rejecting a potential joint investment with new Dragon, Touker Suleyman, Peter Jones took a 40% stake in the business, reducing to 25% once the original investment is repaid.
He will now nurture the Fraser-Bells as they bring to market global editions of the game, as well as a range of expansion packs.
The first of these is a ‘film quotes’ expansion pack of cards, featuring 90 iconic lines from an array of famous movies and it will hit the shelves of John Lewis and Firebox.com next month.
Graeme said: "I’m not easily fazed but that was by far one of the most frenzied experiences of my life.
"We entered the den full of confidence, excited to get the dragons mimicking accents and seeing for themselves how the cringe factor can work brilliantly in a party game.
"Yet the highs and lows were some of the most dramatic I’ve ever felt – those guys really put us through our paces, they had us laughing one minute and on the cusp of tears the next.
"I’ve been in many a heated boardroom, but the den was on another level.”
He added: "We’re absolutely thrilled that Peter sees the potential of Accentuate in the growing ‘games for badults’ sector.
"It’s an exciting time for board, card, dice and party games, with the trend for face-to-face and social gaming on the rise as cafes, clubs and pop-ups continue to open throughout the UK.
"There’s been an influx of creativity in the sector in recent years, with inventors and independent games producers finding new routes to market with their ideas and the popularity of ‘euro games’ steadily on the rise.
"This is great for everybody in the sector – more choice means more people playing and more people discovering games, keeping them on the radar for future generations.”
Dragons' Den investor Peter Jones
BBC Dragon, Peter Jones said: "It’s fair to say I gave Graeme and Fiona a tough time in the den, but I could see from their pitch that they have the passion and drive to make Accentuate a great success. Plus it’s a great party game!
"Gameplay that makes people curl their toes in embarrassment is a decent differentiator, and there’s a lot of potential with the ideas they have in the pipeline and I see valuable synergies with previous investments I have made.
"They’ve had a good first year, they’re an energetic and enthusiastic pair and I’m looking forward to helping them take the Accentuate concept to the next level.”
Accentuate, which launched just over a year ago and is stocked by John Lewis, Firebox.com and a number of independent retailers throughout the UK, boasts a simple yet humiliating premise: repeat a given quotation aloud in a randomly selected accent and see if teammates can guess what it is.
Co-inventor of Accentuate, Graeme’s sister Fiona Fraser-Bell, said: "We’re looking forward to having the new Film Quotes expansion pack hit the shelves next month.
"With that, players read aloud a film quote in a randomly selected accent – so that could mean reciting ‘I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti’ in a strong Brummie brogue, or ‘Say hello to my little friend’ in an out-of-context Cornish.
"Teammates can then earn points by not only guessing the accent correctly, but also by identifying the movie and it’s year of release.
"This has added a new edge to the original game and it’s with Peter’s investment that we’ve been able to really push ahead with this extension to the game.”
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