How Steven Bartlett’s first Dragons’ Den investment collapsed
The full story of how the first company that Steven Bartlett invested in when he joined hit BBC One show Dragons’ Den collapsed and was rescued has been revealed for the first time.
City AM reported in March that artisan cheese retailer Cheesegeek had been acquired by Scotland-based Albex Group for what was then described as an undisclosed sum. It has now been revealed that total was just £68,329.
The collapse and subsequent rescue came after Steven Bartlett bought a five per cent stake in the London company for £150,000 in 2021.
The investment was featured in the businessman’s first series on Dragons’ Den which aired at the start of 2022.
Steven Bartlett’s investment in Cheesegeek, which was founded by Edward Hancock, was conditional on his money being returned within two years.
However according to a document filed with Companies House by Cheesegeek’s administrator, KRE Corporate Recovery, Steven Bartlett was still a shareholder of the business when it collapsed – holding 16,427 shares through his private equity firm, Catena Capital.
Why did Steven Bartlett-backed firm collapse?
Cheesegeek was set up in April 2017 by Edward Hancock to sell artisan British cheeses online and through subscription or one-off purchases.
It was funded initially by Hancock through director loans and the equity investments.
According to KRE Corporate Recovery’s document, trade “exploded” during the Covid-19 pandemic which led the company to move to significantly larger premises.
It also won new clients such as Humble Grape and Sainsbury’s.
During the pandemic, Cheesegeek’s revenue jumped from £250,000 to £1.5m but afterwards dropped each year until 2025 when it neared £2m.
The document added: “The company first began to experience problems post-Covid.
“Having invested materially in an app, our tech stack and a marketing department, expected sales growth did not continue.
“This left us with significant fixed and operational costs which ere not being covered by revenue.”
Cheesegeek raised funds through Samworth Brothers over two rounds and from the GoodFun Offshore family office.
However, the business added it was “not able to manage costs or grow revenue quick enough to reach profitability”.
It went through two rounds of redundancies and “streamlined” its range as well as outsourcing the likes of customer service. The company also mothballed its tech stack.
Cheesegeek’s account with Sainsbury’s had been expected to take the business to profitability but “those forecasts did not transpire and instead left us with wastage and idle operational capacity”.
The document added: “Our final attempt to reach profitability was to outsource our fulfilment with a partner at greater operational scale.
“But conversations took longer than expected and we reached the end of our runway in February 2025.
“It was at this point, when existing investors were no longer willing to fund the business (in the absence of a fulfilment contract) that directors took the difficult decision to move into administration.”
According to the administrator’s document, Cheesegeek had an estimated total deficiency of just under £600,000 when it entered administration.
Some of its creditors included Sainsbury’s, DHL and Deliveroo.