Tej Lalvani

Lalvani was born in India and grew up in Bangalore in southern India; until he was 16 he lived between India and the UK and attended eight different schools, an experience he said made him tougher. He settled in London at 16, and at 18 began a four-year Business Studies undergraduate degree at Westminster Business School, University of Westminster.⁠[1][2][1][1][2]

In 1996, Lalvani graduated from the University of Westminster’s Business Studies BA course and immediately joined Vitabiotics, the vitamin company founded in 1971 by his father, Kartar Lalvani. He started at the bottom: his first role was driving a forklift truck and sticking product labels on boxes in the warehouse, after which he rotated through every department to learn each function of the company in depth. He said his father was harder on him than on most people in the business and that he never received special treatment.⁠[3][1][4][2][1][2][1]

In 2008, Lalvani became chief operating officer of Vitabiotics. He developed a flair for product design, branding, and advertising in the company’s early years and has long been heavily involved in them; nearly all of the company’s marketing came to be overseen by him, including designing packaging and devising adverts such as the Wellman campaign featuring the model David Gandy. In recent years he has shifted the company’s marketing toward digital channels and large-scale social media strategies.⁠[1][5][1][5]

Lalvani was twice named Young Entrepreneur of the Year: at the Asian Business Awards in 2012 and at the TiE UK Awards in 2013. He was also ranked 48th on the GG2 Power List of the most influential Asian people in Britain and featured on India Gazette London’s “The India-UK Power List 2017.”⁠[2][2]

Like other large vitamin companies, Vitabiotics has faced scrutiny over its advertising: as of December 2017, the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) had made seven formal rulings against it since 2012. In 2014, a Wellman TV advert starring the champion swimmer Mark Foster was banned following complaints that references to a professor emphasized its health claims. Lalvani later said the case was “complex,” that the regulator’s actions had always been about “technicalities,” that the company had not had any complaint upheld for several years, and that it always strove to act responsibly and in line with the latest guidance.⁠[1][1][1][1][1]

In 2015, Lalvani succeeded his father as chief executive of Vitabiotics; his father remained chairman and his brother sat on the board. The company then sold brands such as Wellman, Perfectil, and Pregnacare in more than 100 countries and had no outside investors, business loans, or overdrafts; from 2012 to 2016, sales of its UK operations grew from £76 million to £120 million, and it employed about 100 staff at its London headquarters. Lalvani said the advantages of a family business are the speed at which things get done and a longer-term outlook; he described himself as very hands-on, personally reading every customer email in search of ideas for improvement.⁠[1][2][1][1][1][1][1][1]

In August 2017, Lalvani joined the BBC Two business reality show “Dragons’ Den” as a new investor for its 15th series, drafted in after the original candidate, Crystal Palace Football Club chairman Steve Parish, stepped away. On the show he gained a reputation for being less of a fire-breather than his fellow investors.⁠[4][4][1]

In an episode broadcast in August 2018, the two co-founders of the energy auto-switching service Look After My Bills received offers from all five investors and ended up selling 3% of their business for £120,000, accepting a joint investment from Lalvani and Jenny Campbell; the stake was smaller than the previous record for the least equity changing hands on the show (5%). Co-founder Henry de Zoete said the company had 15,000 users when Lalvani invested, grew tenfold within a year, and was then sold to GoCompare.⁠[6][6][6][6][7]

In early 2021, Lalvani announced his departure from “Dragons’ Den”; on May 13 that year, the BBC announced that Steven BartlettSteven BartlettSteven Bartlett, born in Botswana in August 1992, is a British entrepreneur, investor, author and podcast host. He co-founded Social Chain and thirdweb, hosts The Diary Of A CEO, and founded FlightStory and Steven.com. He is also known for roles on Dragons’ Den and Shark Tank. His health-related interviews and commercial endorsements have attracted public scrutiny.Open the full entry would take his place, becoming the youngest investor in the show’s history. Lalvani appeared in series 15 through 18; in 2021 he also invested on the show in the organic superfood brand Rheal.⁠[8][8][5][7][7]

On November 22, 2021, at a graduation ceremony held at London’s Royal Festival Hall, the University of Westminster awarded Lalvani an honorary Doctor of Letters in recognition of his contributions to business and entrepreneurship and to the field of health and wellbeing.⁠[2][2]

Since 2022, Lalvani has been a visiting professor at Westminster Business School. On August 6, 2024, he toured the construction site of 29 Marylebone Road, the University of Westminster’s future employability and enterprise hub, and said the center would unlock great potential for the university’s business students and future entrepreneurs.⁠[3][3][3][3]

On March 3, 2026, The Venture RoomThe Venture RoomThe Venture Room is a UK entrepreneurial media brand centered on the YouTube channel @theventureroom. Through long-form interviews with founders and street interviews such as “Asking Millionaires How They Got Rich?”, it presents entrepreneurs’ stories and advice to aspiring business owners, and runs an entrepreneur community and brand partnerships.Open the full entry released a street-interview video filmed in Mayfair, London, in which Lalvani was one of the interviewees. He said on the program that his first job was at McDonald’sMcDonald’sMcDonald’s is a publicly traded restaurant company headquartered in Chicago, known for hamburgers, fries, drive-thrus and its franchise network. Its origins lie in the restaurant opened by Richard and Maurice McDonald in 1940; Ray Kroc expanded franchising from 1955. It operates across more than 100 countries, with the great majority of restaurants run by independent operators.Open the full entry; that his father, a scientist, came up with vitamin formulations; and that he joined the company in 1996 and helped grow it to sell in about 80 countries. He also said his business was three times the size of its nearest competitor, attributing this to incremental improvement every day.⁠[9][9][9][9][9]

He said the company had survived several economic cycles and recessions and that he always tries to expand during difficult times: if a business is cash-flow positive, that is when it should advertise more and build market share. On negotiation, he said the key is that both parties walk away thinking they have won, and that one should find out what the other side really wants.⁠[9][9][9]

On July 24, 2026, the private investment firm Bain Capital announced that it had agreed to acquire Vitabiotics, including its UK operations and the wider VB Group (including Meyer Organics in India and operations in Africa such as VB Egypt), with the investment led by Bain Capital’s Asia private equity team; there would be no immediate changes to day-to-day operations. The deal followed an auction process launched by the Lalvani family; the two sides did not disclose its value, and The Times estimated it at about £900 million. Completion is subject to customary conditions including regulatory approvals; founder Kartar Lalvani is to take the honorary role of chairman emeritus on completion.⁠[10][10][10][11][12][11][11][10][10]

Bain Capital described Lalvani as group chief executive, with more than 30 years in the business, under whose leadership over the previous decade the company had significantly accelerated its growth through product launches and partnerships. Lalvani said the move was “not about changing who we are; it is about accelerating what we can become,” and that Bain Capital’s global expertise and investment gave the company the opportunity to expand internationally, accelerate innovation, and bring its brands to more consumers.⁠[10][10][10][10]

On action: “If you think it, do it — take action now. Momentum beats perfection every single time. Don’t try to perfect it, just start; with action you can always change your ideas and modify your product.” (at 04:49 in the video)⁠[9][9]

On continuous improvement: “I disagree with ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ Keep fixing it even if it’s not broken, because you want to stay ahead of every competitor; think every day about how to improve your product, formulations, marketing, and messaging incrementally, and over time you get way ahead.” (at 05:11 in the video)⁠[9][9]

On starting from zero: “I would look at a boring industry and improve its distribution, with better customer service and better systems. Focus on one pain point people have and do it better; it is better to have a thousand people who love your product than a hundred thousand who think it’s okay.” (at 06:18 in the video)⁠[9][9][9]

On negotiation: “Find out the other side’s real pain point and negotiate around it — if you care more about price and I care more about cash flow, I can give you a lower price but ask for money up front. Time is money, so negotiate quickly and effectively and make sure both sides win.” (at 07:04 in the video)⁠[9][9][9]

Vitabiotics: Official website: https://www.vitabiotics.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[13]

Personal website: https://www.tejlalvani.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[14]

X: Public account: https://x.com/TejLalvani (opens in a new window)⁠[14]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tej-lalvani-b7199b7/ (opens in a new window)⁠[14]

Instagram: Public account: https://www.instagram.com/tejlalvani/ (opens in a new window)⁠[14]