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Steven Bartlett’s eye-watering fortune has been revealed as he bagged a huge new investment – which has made him one of richest moguls to ever grace Dragons’ Den.
The 33-year-old, best known for being an entrepreneur and podcaster, joined the BBC show back in 2022.
Over the past three years Steven has been a Dragon alongside Sara Davies, Deborah Meaden, Peter Jones and Touker Suleyman – in a career dogged by controversy.
Early in her career he co-founded social media marketing company Social Chain, which was accused of plagiarising social media posts.
Bartlett was also accused of overstating the firm’s worth, claiming he took it public at a value of $600million when it had in fact merged with a German firm for less than a third of the value – and he ultimately sold his stake for £7.7million.
Since then, Bartlett has founded media firm Flight Story – which produces his Diary of a CEO podcast, itself the topic of controversy – and online shopping platform Stan Store, a rival for firms such as Shopify.
This week, Bartlett said in a press release that the holding company for his ventures, Steven.com, has been valued at $425million (£320million).
It comes after the firm received an eight-figure investment from venture capital firms Slow Ventures and Apeiron Investment.
This will, the businessman claims, help him ‘build the Disney of the creator economy’ – the billion-pound industry of influencers who make a living out of streaming and posting to TikTok, Instagram, Twitch and YouTube.
Steven said of the investment: ‘By bringing together creator IP, capital and our infrastructure, Steven.com is positioning itself to lead in the next era of the creator economy.
‘My ultimate ambition is to build the Disney of the creator economy – and the strategic partners this funding round has brought on board has enabled me to take a big step in that direction.
‘For the last century, companies like Disney – from its starting point with Walt Disney himself – has demonstrated the power of a single piece of intellectual property.
‘He and his successors built a global empire by taking a character like Mickey Mouse and building a universe around him: films, theme parks, merchandise and more. This created a flywheel of immense, compounding value which resulted in a generational company.
‘With my team, I think we are building the modern version of this model. But in our world, the IP is not a fictional character. The creator is the new franchise.
‘Our mission is to build the defining company of the creator economy by constructing an ecosystem that scales a creator’s influence across two core pillars: creator media and creator ventures, while powering this flywheel with our proprietary creator technology.’
Some believe that this is Europe’s biggest ever creator holding company fundraising round.
The press release stated that this deal will ‘accelerate Bartlett’s mission to empower creator media companies and creator ventures to scale globally and develop world-class creator IP and creator commerce eco-systems’.
Steven’s other companies FlightStory, FlightCast and FlightFund will also be involved.
As well as being a successful businessman, Steven also created his own podcast The Diary of a CEO.
The popular podcast began in 2017.
He has interviewed the likes of Simon Cowell, Boris Johnson and Richard Branson.
This year it won Best International Podcast award at the iHeart Radio podcast awards.
Steven was also listed in the Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2020.
Many have loved the star being on Dragons’ Den since he joined for the 19th series in 2022.
Ahead of joining the programme, Steven said: ‘I’ve been watching Dragons’ Den since I was 12 years old – it was my first window into the real world of business and investing.
‘It’s a tremendous honour to join the Den, hopefully representing a new generation of entrepreneurs, inspiring young and specifically under-represented entrepreneurs to follow in my footsteps.’
The Beeb’s commissioning editor for entertainment, Sarah Clay, added: ‘As well as being our youngest ever Dragon, Steven’s unique approach to business will bring a whole new dynamic to the Den.
‘He brings a wealth of experience from the social media, technological and brand building worlds.
‘I’m so excited to see him in the next series.’
