Inside Jermaine Jenas's incredible side hustle ‘earning £10 million a year’

Jermaine Jenas appears to have a lucrative "side hustle" he can fall back on after being sacked from his highly-paid jobs with the BBC, the Express can reveal.

Education recruitment agency Aquinas Education was founded by the former Premier League star back in 2009 as a joint venture with an old school friend from Nottingham, Craig Anderson.

The company which was owned wholly by the pair up until May of this year, takes a fee for connecting supply teachers and schools in London, Liverpool and the East Midlands.

Jenas was previously described as the firm's managing director in a post on its website about a deal to supply the Diocese of Westminster with staff for Church of England schools in London and the Home Counties.

The sacked presenter also promoted the business in posts on social media, including a video montage on its Instagram page with behind-the-scenes footage of the One Show.

In May, when the business was acquired by start-up tech company Zen Educate, Anderson cashed out his investment. Details of the exact sum paid were not released but it came after Zen raised $37 million from investors.

Former Match of the Day star Jenas, however, retained his stake post-sale and became a brand ambassador for the firm. The Express has approached Zen to clarify whether Jenas, who has confessed to sending inappropriate messages to two colleagues on The One Show, will continue in this role following his sacking by the BBC and is yet to receive a response.

Aquinas Education did not meet the official threshold for publishing details about revenue on Companies House, but Gary Hemming, the commercial lending director of ABC Finance, who analysed the firm’s invoice information in its most recent accounts, published on February 6, 2024, estimates the figure could be in the region of £10.2 million.

“Turnover is a hard one to come by due to the type of accounts that they publish,” he explained.

“There are a few ways to work out a rough figure, though. In the accounts, there is a figure for an invoice discounting facility.

“Invoice discounting allows you to release cash from your invoices before they’re paid by your customer.

“Most companies of that type would be able to release up to 90% of their unpaid invoices and most invoices would be paid on 30-day terms.

“On the date of the latest accounts, they had £768,407 outstanding on it, which at 90% advance rate would put their outstanding invoices at around £853,785 – meaning a likely annual turnover [in the region] of £10.2m.”

In March 2023, Aquinas was appointed on the government’s Crown Commercial Services procurement framework enabling it to supply teachers to schools across the country. The firm also acts as a supplier for educational institutions in Dubai and has a section of its website describing the benefits of teaching in the United Arab Emirates.

Did you ever encounter Jermaine Jenas in his role at Aquinas Education or anywhere else? Get in touch by emailing [email protected]