Tomy will take Mood Bears global following its UK success, which includes attracting investment from all five dragons on the latest season of Dragon’s Den.
Mood Bears founder Jo Proud and her husband, with the range of emotion-based teddy bears.
Tomy Toys has signed a partnership agreement with Mood Bears, a female-founded toy brand that has captured the nation’s attention thanks to its success on the BBC’s Dragon’s Den. Through the partnership, Tomy acquires the worldwide rights to future manufacturing, sales and distribution of Mood Bears products.
The brand promotes mental health positivity through its collection of soft toy bears, each of which corresponds with a different emotion: Happy Bear, Sad Bear, Silly Bear, Calm Bear, Nervous Bear, Angry Bear, Love Bear and Hope Bear. The bears are made from 100% recycled materials and promote emotional well-being for all ages. Each is a different colour, has a symbol for its corresponding mood embroidered on its feet and comes with a poem to help people understand and talk about their thoughts and feelings.
Founder Joanna Proud asked for a £20,000 investment for a 25% share of her company when she appeared on the 2023 series of Dragon’s Den in April. She secured support from all five Dragons, who joined forces to invest £4,000 each in the brand.
The Dragons weren’t the only ones enchanted by the Mood Bears concept, with many viewers expressing their enthusiasm on social media. Following Joanna’s appearance on the show, the Mood Bears website was inundated with orders.
The new partnership will allow Mood Bears to scale globally with guidance from Tomy, which has already found worldwide success with Lamaze, Aquadoodle, Drumond Park Games and its other industry-leading brands.
Dragon’s Den investor Peter Jones said: “I am over the moon that Mood Bears is now in the hands of the Tomy global team. With such a passion to make the world smile, I’m positive that Mood Bears will become a great global brand.”
Mary Wood, managing director at Tomy, said: “We are delighted to be working alongside Joanna, and can’t wait to start growing the Mood Bears brand together. The Mood Bears products are really unique and special. We’re confident that they will be a global success thanks to their universal appeal, suitability for all age groups and link to the topical concern of emotional well-being. We plan to continue the great work that Joanna has already started in putting mental health top of the agenda.”
Joanna Proud – who founded the company based on her own experiences with mental health – said of the partnership: “I am truly honoured to hand over such a special brand to a fantastic global company. In the short time since I designed the Mood Bears, their presence has already become so strong and the positive outcomes from all over the world has been simply breathtaking. I know that working with Tomy, our passion to ‘make the world smile’ will thrive.”
