Dragons鈥� Den star Steven Bartlett has spoken out after the Social Chain business that he co-founded was sold in for 拢7.7m.
Bartlett founded the Manchester-based influencer marketing agency with business partner Dominic McGregor in 2014 and achieved a reach of听more than听two听billion views per month.
In October 2019, Social Chain merged with Lumaland AG to form The Social Chain AG and list on XETRA and the D眉sseldorf Stock Exchange.
Last week it was revealed that Now Brave Bison Group plc, a social and digital media company, had acquired the entire issued share capital of Social Chain Limited for an initial consideration of 拢7.7m and potential future payments of 拢9.5m.
These are to be paid over the coming three years and are dependent on stretch performance targets based on EBITDA.
Bartlett left Social Chain in 2020 and has gone on to author Happy听Sexy听Millionaire; host the hit podcast Diary of a CEO; and become the youngest investor of Dragons鈥� Den.
The entrepreneur took to LinkedIn to put his side of the story forward after the news that Social Chain had been sold.
He wrote: 鈥淚n 2014 I started a company called Social Chain. Shortly after I merged it with Wanja Soren Oberhof鈥檚 commerce company Lumaland with the mission of combining our marketing talent and their commerce talent.
鈥淲e called the new (listed) group The Social Chain AG and myself and Wanja became co-CEO’s of the group. All of my equity was in the publicly listed group. Over the next few years, me and Wanja raised capital and acquired agencies and commerce companies under the 鈥楽ocial Chain AG鈥� brand.
鈥淎t the time of my departure, Social Chain Group was generating in excess of $300m in revenues. It would go on to reach a valuation of $600m+ on the stock market.
鈥淚n 2019 I made a presentation to the board that I wanted to split the group in half – separating our marketing business (five-10 agencies) and our eCommerce business (20 companies) so they could go their own ways.
“The board took a different view, so I resigned and in my resignation I said my departure should now give the company one unified vision.
“A year or so after I departed, Social Chain Group decided to focus on e-com, and they’ve been acquiring eCommerce companies while selling off their marketing agencies around the world, ever since.
鈥淭oday (according to last week鈥檚 release) marketing accounts for just 10 per cent of their business. I imagine this number will be at 0 by the end of the year.
Social Chain co-founders Steve Bartlett and听Dominic McGregor leave business
鈥淪ocial Chain owned almost 10 agencies and they represented about $80m of our total revenue in the year I stepped down. From what I know, they’re nearly all sold.
“This week Social Chain Group sold the first and the original agency business that we had started in Manchester almost 10 years ago 鈥� Social Chain Agency, which I believe (from press releases) was generating 拢15m in sales in 2022, and was sold last week to Brave Bison – a very capable marketing company with two great founders.
鈥淚’m exceptionally happy the brand is now in talented hands of people with marketing in their DNA.鈥�
鈥淭he Social Chain 鈥榞roup鈥� was not sold last week and by all accounts is in a period of healthy transition under a new CEO, Georg. I have submitted a bid to buy one such agency from Social Chain Group’s portfolio.
“I wish Georg (Kofler), who is the new CEO of Social Chain Group the very best of luck – last week they announced their vision to focus on eCommerce – and not both marketing and commerce. This is the vision I believed in most, and it’s in their DNA! I’ll be following as a friend and a fan.鈥�
Speaking last week, Brave Bison鈥檚 chair Oliver Green said: 鈥淲e鈥檝e long admired Social Chain, which we believe is among the world鈥檚 best regarded social media and influencer marketing brands, and we鈥檙e excited by the highly relevant clients it brings into our business.
鈥淪ocial Chain has huge potential for growth within Brave Bison, taking the momentum Pete and the team have built up using Steven Bartlett鈥檚 platform. We鈥檙e delighted to be taking this big step forward as we continue to build a media, marketing and technology company for the new era.鈥�