Andrew shuts down Pitch@Palace business venture

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is closing down a few of his final remaining identified enterprise pursuits, together with Pitch@Palace World Ltd.Pitch@Palace was a Dragon’s Den-style start-up competitors the place entrepreneurs might current their concepts to potential buyers, and was as soon as seen as a attainable supply of revenue for the previous prince, after the King stopped supporting him financially.A doc asserting the applying to dissolve the corporate was filed with Firms Home on Tuesday, signed by the corporate’s solely director Arthur Lancaster.Mr Mountbatten-Windsor and Mr Lancaster have been approached for remark.The choice to shut Pitch@Palace marks one other part within the former prince’s retreat from public life, after intense scrutiny over his hyperlinks to the convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein.The pitching competitors suspended operations in 2019, following an interview Mr Mountbatten-Windsor gave to BBC Newsnight, which led to him stepping down as a working royal and the removing of his royal titles.The UK aspect of the enterprise was wound up in 2021, however the worldwide half, Pitch@Palace World, remained open. It grew to become an extra supply of controversy when the founding father of the Chinese language arm of Pitch@Palace, Yang Tengbo, was accused of being a spy – which he denied.A Dutch firm, Startup Bootcamp, beforehand mentioned it was concerned about shopping for the enterprise, issuing a press launch saying it noticed “immense worth” within the former Pitch@Palace community. Nonetheless, the deal unravelled earlier this 12 months.A lot of the money left on Pitch@Palace World’s steadiness sheet has been withdrawn lately. The most recent set of accounts confirmed that it had simply £10,965 left on the finish of March, down from £220,990 the 12 months earlier than.Mr Lancaster is known to carry the shares in Pitch@Palace World on Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s behalf. The latter is listed as an individual with important management beneath his former title, Prince Andrew.One other firm with hyperlinks to the previous Prince, Innovate World Ltd, additionally started the method of closing down on Tuesday.Arthur Lancaster is the only director of this firm, too, and he signed the applying to strike the corporate off, in keeping with paperwork filed at Firms Home on Tuesday.A plan to relaunch a few of the worldwide actions of Pitch@Palace beneath the model Innovate World was talked about in a 2023 witness assertion given by Mr Yang.Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s title doesn’t seem on the paperwork for Innovate World Ltd. It has no staff and just about no belongings.It was introduced on Tuesday that Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s surname needs to be spelled with a hyphen.Variations with and with out the hyphen have been used previously, however a 1960 Privy Council announcement used the hyphenated model, which can be used any more.