Entrepreneur Steven Bartlett is launching a $100 million Flight Story Fund to ‘accelerate the next generation of European unicorns’.
Bartlett – co-founder of Social Chain and star of BBC show Dragons’ Den – is launching the fund following the success of his podcast The Diary of a CEO.
Capital markets, and in particular private equity, took a huge hit in 2022. The launch of the Flight Story Fund has been timed to exploit the dislocation and disruption in the economy.
The fund will invest in companies in the best position to navigate the next decade and are focused on innovation in rapidly emerging sectors.
It will deliver individual investments between $1-$10m in high-growth companies in six emerging categories: blockchain, BioTech, health & wellbeing, commerce, technology and space.
Steven Bartlett’s marketing firm set for $10m+ revenue in FY1
“Throughout the last decade, I developed an immense network of the most successful entrepreneurs in Europe,” said Bartlett. “Flight Story Fund connects the founders to the investment and tools they need to catapult them through their growth trajectory to accelerate their timeline to Unicorn status.
“I’ve been on the journey myself and now I am helping other skilled founders succeed in the same way. The launch of the Flight Story Fund is an invitation to Europe’s best entrepreneurs from Europe’s best companies – come and take flight with us.”
Social Chain went public via a German merger in 2019. Bartlett – now also co-founder of Web3 development platform thirdweb and consulting company Flight Story – resigned as CEO of Social Chain a few years later.
He has invested himself in Huel, Vivino, Isar Aerospace and 20+ other private companies and smaller investments via his role as a BBC Dragon.