Top entrepreneurs and financiers caught up in collapse of luxury jeweller Vashi

Some of Britain's leading entrepreneurs and financiers are facing significant financial losses from the implosion of Vashi, the upmarket jeweller.

Sky News can reveal that Sinclair Beecham, the co-founder of Pret a Manger, Nick Wheeler, founder of the shirtmaker Charles Tyrwhitt, and William Jackson, chief executive of London-listed private equity firm Bridgepoint, are all investors in Vashi.

The trio are among a significant number of individuals who pumped tens of millions of pounds into the jeweller, which sold bespoke items such as engagement rings costing hundreds of thousands of pounds.

City sources said on Thursday that other prominent individuals were also investors in Vashi's parent company, Diamond Manufacturing Ltd.

JamJar Investments, the venture capital firm set up by the founders of Innocent Drinks, is also among its shareholders.

Richard Reed, one of the Innocent founders, was named in an investor presentation created by Vashi as an adviser to the brand, saying it had "the potential to do to the jewellery establishment what Airbnb did to hotels - upturn the current consumer proposition, give a better, more authentic personal experience, create an entirely new and better way".

According to the company's website, its investors included "the founders and CEOs of major global brands, managing partners at private equity firms, and several family offices".

The family office of Lord Spencer, the former ICAP chief, is also understood to have been an investor but sold its stake two years ago, according to a person close to the situation.

Vashi's liquidation was triggered by a winding-up petition filed by Canary Wharf Group, one of its shop landlords, Sky News reported on Wednesday.

Its shareholders now face the loss of their entire investment in the business, according to one investor.

Vashi had been seeking £75m in new funding at a valuation of £250m, telling prospective backers that it planned to use the proceeds to expand into the US.

The company's collapse is likely to raise serious questions about its governance and the quality of its financial oversight, according to one observer.

As Vashi's liquidator, Teneo Financial Advisory will now investigate the conduct of its parent company's directors as part of the insolvency process.

It traded from four stores and is said to employ about 200 people.

The company was founded by Vashi Dominguez, who opened his first store on London's Piccadilly in 2016.

In a statement, Teneo said it had been appointed "by the Secretary of State following the making of a winding-up order".

"The intention of the liquidators is to locate and preserve assets of the business for the benefit of creditors," the statement added.

Vashi boasted on its website that it had seen tenfold sales growth between 2016 and 2019 and had been ranked 26th in the 2019 Sunday Times list of Britain's fastest-growing private companies.

Mr Dominguez was a regional winner in the accountancy firm EY's Entrepreneur of the Year awards in 2021, the company's website said.

Vashi could not be reached for comment.

-sky news