Dacorum’s Den 2026: eleven local businesses win up to £1,500

Eleven early-stage businesses have been awarded up to £1,500 through Dacorum’s Den 2026, the council-backed pitch programme for local founders.

The sums are small by venture-capital theatre. They are not small if you are buying a second-hand espresso machine, insuring a van, or paying the first quarter of a Maylands workshop. That is the point of a borough scheme: it meets people below the threshold where banks get interested.

Dacorum’s economy is not only Maylands Business Park and the retail parks. It is Berkhamsted High Street independents, Tring’s market traders, Bovingdon high-street shops and Hemel Old Town cafes. A Den winner from any of those places is a better leading indicator than another logistics shed.

We will publish the winner list as a directory feature so readers can spend money with them: which is worth more than the trophy.