Failed App Supported by Sarah Ferguson Received £1 Million from Taxpayers

A lifestyle application supported by Sarah Ferguson has reportedly received over £1 million in taxpayer funding but ultimately failed to deliver a product, as revealed by recent documentation.

Founded by Manuel Fernandez, a close acquaintance of Ms. Ferguson, the app vVoosh had the former duchess claiming the role of an ‘ambassador’ and investor for the initiative. The app aimed to empower users to ‘Find, Plan, Share, Live, and Remember’ various activities they enjoy or wish to explore.

Neither Ms. Ferguson nor Mr. Fernandez have provided comments regarding the situation.

Last month, vVoosh entered administration, prompting scrutiny of the former duchess’s judgment in her business partnerships. Over its lifespan, the company managed to secure about £9 million in funding, which included over £1 million sourced from the UK government through research and development tax credits, according to the administrator’s report.

Despite hiring teams from the UK and India to develop the app, it never launched, resulting in a lack of revenue to sustain further development efforts. The project hit a standstill when the Indian contractor threatened legal action.

The administrator’s report highlights a ‘breakdown in communication’ between current directors and major creditors, along with Mr. Fernandez, who stopped communicating after resigning as a director earlier this year. The report indicates that the company is owed £324,609 by a former director, believed to be Mr. Fernandez, the only director to have departed the company since 2019.

In a separate development, Mr. Fernandez sold his North London home last summer for £1.3 million and is thought to have left the UK. vVoosh also owes £50,000 to Ms. Ferguson’s company, La Luna Investments, which held nearly 1% of the firm’s shares.

Documentation reveals that the company had more than 60 small shareholders, primarily located in Essex and London, with a few based in the United States. The administrators expressed ‘significant uncertainty’ regarding the recovery amounts for the company’s creditors once it is dissolved.

Mark Guzy, one of the American investors, has contributed over £400,000 to maintain ‘essential services’ and safeguard the value of the software platform, which remains the company’s primary asset. vVoosh had originally planned to allocate 10% of its profits to a charitable foundation.

Reports suggest that the Charity Commission is initiating steps to remove the vVoosh Charitable Foundation from the charity register due to its inactivity, with reporting being overdue by more than four and a half years.

HMRC did not respond to inquiries regarding the tax credits, and both Mr. Guzy and other directors of vVoosh declined to comment on the situation. Earlier this month, Mr. Fernandez denied any allegations of misappropriating funds from the company, stating that such claims would be ‘disproven in the course of legal proceedings.’

Ms. Ferguson, who is now 66, lost her duchess title when her ex-husband, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, renounced his Duke of York title due to links with Epstein, who has since been stripped of his prince title.

Recently, it was reported that a cryptocurrency mining company had offered Ms. Ferguson up to £1.4 million for her role as a ‘brand ambassador,’ although that firm also faced failure, reportedly costing investors millions. The co-founder of that company has denied any wrongdoing and is reportedly working to reimburse investors.

In September, several charities ended their patronage or ambassadorship with her following the emergence of an email from 2011 in which she referred to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as her ‘supreme friend’ and appeared to apologize for her previous criticisms of him.

Mr. Fernandez attended school in Billericay, Essex, and served in the Royal Anglian Regiment, as noted on his LinkedIn profile. He later held prominent sales positions in various tech firms before launching vVoosh in 2010. In 2015 and 2016, he was frequently seen with then-duchess Ferguson, and they attended Sir Bob Geldof’s wedding together, although she denied rumors of a romantic relationship, insisting they were merely ‘good friends.’