Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is about to have one of his last remaining companies closed down – as his Dragons Den-style start-up approaches its end next week.

The ex-Duke of York has been taking steps to wind down his business Pitch@Palace, marking another phase in his retreat from public life.

Now a voluntary strike-off has been registered with Companies House, set for next Tuesday, February 3.  

Buckingham Palace announced last October that Andrew, 65, would have all of his royal titles stripped over his links to late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

In a statement, the Palace said ‘censures [were] deemed necessary’ amid the growing controversy surrounding his relationship with the financier, with whom Andrew lied about cutting ties.

Within hours, the former royal was erased from the Roll of the Peerage.

In a further blow for the former prince, he applied to close the commercial arm of Pitch@Palace Global Ltd, which survived his disastrous Newsnight interview in 2019.

By 2021, the UK branch of the company had closed as controversy swirled surrounding Andrew’s friendship with Epstein.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is winding down his Dragon’s Den-style start-up business

Andrew pictured with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson in September. The pair are spending their final days at Royal Lodge largely apart, after the former Duke was stripped of his royal title

Pitch@Palace followed the format of the hit BBC show Dragon’s Den, encouraging budding entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas to potential investors.

It was seen as a way to provide Andrew with a stream of income after his elder brother King Charles stopped supporting him financially. 

Participants would compete for funding and the opportunity to reach a final staged at St James’s Palace. 

A Companies House notice showed how Pitch@Palace Global Ltd’s one remaining director Arthur Lancaster applied to strike off the company and have it dissolved.

Mr Lancaster is a business associate of Doug Barrowman and Baroness Mone who are embroiled in controversy over the roll-out of PPE during the Covid pandemic.

The firm publicly removed Andrew’s former Duke of York title from the register where he was listed as a ‘person of significant control’.

Pitch@Palace, set up in 2017, once won the ex-prince plaudits for helping to get young people into business, claiming it had a ‘strong ecosystem with 1,000+ entrepreneurs from 64 countries globally’

Accounts filed recently showed the company had no staff and its assets had slumped from £257,286 to just £12,000.

Andrew, Virginia Giuffre and sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell in a photo reportedly taken in 2001, when Giuffre was 17 years old

The closing document said: ‘This company has applied to be struck off and dissolved. The registrar will proceed unless there is reasonable cause not to, and on dissolution any assets remaining in the company will be passed to the Crown.’

A deal for Dutch company Startup Bootcamp to buy Andrew’s firm fell through last March despite it admitting it saw ‘immense value’ in the business.

Andrew was stripped of all his royal titles last October after a leaked email published by the Mail on Sunday proved he lied in his interview with BBC’s Newsnight when he claimed he ‘never had any contact’ with Epstein after they were pictured together in New York in December 2010.

Buckingham Palace announced in October Andrew would no longer be known as a prince and would leave Royal Lodge in Windsor – instead taking up residence ahead on the family’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk.

King Charles stripped his brother of titles after weeks of pressure to act over Andrew’s relationship with Epstein, who died in prison in August 2019 aged 66.

Andrew had earlier that month said he would no longer use the Duke of York title following revelations about his friendship with Epstein and renewed sexual abuse allegations by Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre in her posthumous memoir.

The Mail on Sunday revealed how Andrew tried to involve the Metropolitan Police and one of Queen Elizabeth’s most senior aides in a campaign to smear Ms Giuffre, who had accused him of assaulting her as a teenager.

An email exposed how Andrew asked his taxpayer–funded police bodyguard to investigate the ‘lying’ young woman.

The late Virginia Giuffre, whose posthumous autobiography has now been published, is seen here with a photo of herself – this picture was taken in 2022

Pictured: Royal Lodge. Andrew will now move into a property on the private Sandringham estate and it is understood any accommodation he lives in will be privately funded by the King

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson are pictured here with their daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. The family are said to remain close

The prince is said to have passed on details of her date of birth and social security number, thought to have been given to him by Epstein.

He also claimed Virginia, who took her own life earlier this year, had criminal convictions, a claim which has not been backed up by any evidence or confirmed by police and has been strongly denied by her family.

An earlier email exposé proved that Andrew lied to Buckingham Palace and the British public when he claimed he had cut off all contact with his close friend in December 2010, following Epstein’s release from prison on child–sex charges.

Twelve weeks later, he emailed the sex offender financier to say they were ‘in this together’ and expressed his wish to ‘play some more soon’.

Ms Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, alleged she was forced to have sex three times with Andrew, which he vehemently denies, including when she was 17 and also during an orgy, after she was trafficked by Epstein.

Andrew paid millions to settle a civil sexual assault case with her in 2022, though insisted he had never met her.

He was this week spotted on horseback at Windsor Castle accompanied by Beatrice and her four-year-old daughter Sienna, with the trio seen in the Royal Mews before heading out into Home Park.

Photographs showed a downcast-looking Andrew riding ahead, while Beatrice walked alongside Sienna and a groom.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (left), Princess Eugenie (centre) and Princess Beatrice (right) at St Paul’s Cathedral in London in June 2016

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor riding with a groom at Windsor Castle on January 26 2026

A van arrives at Royal Lodge, on the Windsor estate, as Andrew prepares to move out

After Andrew and  Sarah Ferguson were forced out of of Royal Lodge (pictured), Andrew is moving to Marsh Farm in Norfolk, on his brother Charles’s estate. However it is unclear where Sarah will be going

They spent more than 45 minutes wandering the grounds.

It has been reported that Beatrice also visited her father at his soon-to-be former home Royal Lodge.

A removals van was seen at the property last week as he began sorting through decades of belongings.

Andrew is expected to move into a temporary property on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk in the coming weeks, ahead of renovations being completed on Marsh Farm, his new home, around Easter.

He was said to have been urged to remain in London over Christmas to avoid being close to senior royals while they spent the festive period at Sandringham.