James Middleton

Middleton caused "shudders" at Buckingham Palace after taking part in a Hello magazine photoshoot for which he was commissioned to bake 21 cakes commemorating its 21st birthday, each iced with one of the magazine's front covers – amongst them, several members of the royal family, including Diana, Princess of Wales.

The business won Smarta 100 and Haines Watts Young Entrepreneur awards.

His elder sisters are Catherine (born 1982) and Philippa (born 1983).

James William Middleton (born 15 April 1987) is a British entrepreneur who is the younger brother of Catherine, Princess of Wales.

Born in Reading, Berkshire, Middleton was educated at St Andrew's School, Pangbourne.

He briefly attended the University of Edinburgh before dropping out and founding a cake-making business.

Middleton began receiving media attention during his eldest sister's relationship and subsequent marriage to Prince William.

He is a mental health advocate and has spoken about his experiences with major depressive disorder.

Middleton is also an ambassador for the Pets As Therapy charity.

James William Middleton was born on 15 April 1987 at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, the youngest child and only son of Michael Middleton (born 1949), a former British Airways flight dispatcher, and Carole Middleton (born 1955), a former flight attendant.

His father came from a line of solicitors who resided in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

His great-grandmother Olive Middleton was a member of the Lupton family, who were landed gentry.

His mother's family were labourers and miners from County Durham.

Shortly before his birth, Middleton's parents founded Party Pieces, a mail-order party supply company.

The family resided in Bradfield Southend, Berkshire, before moving to the nearby village of Bucklebury in 1995.

Middleton was educated at St Andrew's School, Pangbourne, and Marlborough College.

In 2006, he attended the University of Edinburgh, studying environmental resources management before dropping out a year later.

Middleton's cake-making business, now defunct, was inspired by reading that a mother's baking is a highly evocative childhood memory.

He supplied baking kits so home bakers would be able to get all the ingredients in one place for adventurous creations such as "football cakes".

He started baking in the family kitchen and expanded into a freight container and converted barns.

Themed birthday cake baking kits were distributed by his parents' company, Party Pieces.

Themed cakes were later provided for companies such as Jigsaw, 3 and Ralph Lauren.

In April 2011, he registered three businesses: Nice Cakes, Nice Wine, and Nice Group London and planned to expand the Cake Kit Company.

In 2013, Middleton and Andy Bell founded boomf, a company that makes personalised marshmallows and greeting cards.

Middleton had previously founded Nice Cakes, which specialised in personalised cakes.

Bell had previously founded Mint Digital, which created StickyGram (now Sticky9), an Instagram magnet company which sold to PhotoBox.

Boomf launched in November 2013 without mentioning Middleton's involvement, to allow for a low profile launch.

In January 2014, Boomf announced Middleton's involvement, believing that it would be impossible to keep it secret long-term.

In 2014, Boomf raised over $1m and was backed by a number of angel investors, including Nick Jenkins, founder of Moonpig, Duncan Jennings and Matt Wheeler.

Boomf shipped 2 tons of marshmallows in its first year and made £100,000 ($168,000) in sales in its first three months.

The Cake Kit Company was dissolved in 2015.

In 2015, the company raised funds at a valuation of £10m.

Boomf made a loss of £3 million between 2015 and 2018.

In July 2015, Boomf launched a nationwide search for a new marshmallow designer.

The winner was Bournemouth University student Izzy Burton.

Middleton's brother-in-law, hedge fund manager James Matthews paid Middleton €110,000 for 12,800 Boomf shares.

In 2019, Middleton announced that the company had reached profitability with an income of £176,000 in the previous year - and an increase in sales of up to £4.4 million from £2.8 million in the previous year.

The company moved into new offices in Reading with circa 20,000 ft2 to warehouse space.

Boomf raised $1m of funding in 2021, but by December 2021 the company had fallen into administration owing £800,000 to creditors, including £146,306 to HM Revenue and Customs.

In May 2020, Middleton launched Ella & Co, a mail order dog food company that offers freeze-dried, raw, organic dog food.