Taxpayers in the United Kingdom now hold shares in Killing Kittens, a sex party organizing startup founded by Emma Sayle, a schoolfriend of the Duchess of Cambridge, the Financial Times reports.
This development occurred thanks to a convertible loan provided to Killing Kittens by the state-owned British Business Bank’s Future Fund in 2020.
As the media outlet points out, the loans provided under the Future Fund program to “innovative firms” during the COVID pandemic featured a clause that converts said loans into equity at the recipient company’s next fundraising, which is what happened in Killing Kittens’ case.
Sayle herself said that her company raised £1 million during its latest round, which valued Killing Kittens at about £15 million, with the government owning a 1.5 percent share.
“The government has already made money on the investment,” she said as quoted by FT.
Established in 2005, Killing Kittens is known for its “exclusive and hedonistic” events, as the media outlet put it, hosted members-only events in a number of major cities across the world. The company has also developed its own adult social media network.