Dragons' Den star Steven Bartlett has submitted a bid to buy a brand from the company which helped make his fortune.
The entrepreneur co-founded Social Chain in Manchester with Dominic McGregor in 2014 before departing after it merged with German commerce company Lumaland. The combined group is now called The Social Chain AG.
Following the news that Social Chain is to be sold to a London-based agency for £7.7m, Mr Bartlett took to LinkedIn to speak about his time at the company, why he resigned and his potential new deal.
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He said: "In 2014 I started a company called Social Chain. Shortly after I merged it with Wanja Sören Oberhof 's commerce company Lumaland with the mission of combining our marketing talent and their commerce talent.
"We 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 'Social Chain AG' brand.
"At 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.
"In 2019 I made a presentation to the board that I wanted to split the group in half - separating our marketing business (5-10 agencies) and our e-commerce biz (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 e-commerce companies while selling off their marketing agencies around the world, ever since.
"Today (according to last weeks release) marketing accounts for just 10% of their business. I imagine this number will be at 0 by the end of the year.
"Social 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 Social Chain Agency, which I believe (from press releases) was generating £15m in sales in 2022, and was sold last week to Brave Bison - a very capable marketing company with two great founders. I'm exceptionally happy the brand is now in talented hands of people with marketing in their DNA.
"The Social Chain 'group' 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, who is the new CEO of Social Chain Group the very best of luck - last week they announced their vision to focus on e-commerce - 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."
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