Food allergy app developer with 1,500 restaurants on its books looks to raise £1 million

An Aberdeen-based allergen and food safety specialist that has been named as one the ten most exciting tech starts-ups in the UK is in the process of raising upwards of £1 million to feed its growth.

LiberEat is embarking on the significant fund-raising drive to grow its volume of users and further enhance its offering to app users and clients in the food sector.

The company has already secured the support of partners such as the Vegan Society’s vegan trademark in its efforts to support the estimated 13 million people in the UK with food allergies and other dietary requirements by helping them source suitable grocery products, recipes and restaurants.

There are now more than 130,000 food products and 1,500 restaurants featured on the firm’s platform. The business is also working with a range of retail and restaurant partners, including Pret A Manger, Browns and All Bar One.

LiberEat was founded in 2016 by Barry Leaper, pictured, and Louise Cahill.

The funds raised will be used to grow its app user base further and accelerate roll out of its technology to address allergen errors for food production and restaurant chain clients.

LiberEat, which was founded in 2016 by Barry Leaper and Louise Cahill, has seen its team grow to nine people, including recent additions Michelle McClure, former head of brand marketing for Europe at Rover.com, and Andrew Maddox, who was previously head of London for Uber Eats.

Leaper, managing director, said: “LiberEat is on a mission to make life easier and safer for everyone with dietary requirements and reduce potentially harmful food allergy incidents.

“This current funding round comes at a key stage in our development to help us continue increasing our UK-wide app user base and further innovating our unique offering to help food service and food production clients ensure the highest level of accuracy when listing allergen details in products.”

The firm will feature at EIE 2021 this week in Edinburgh. One of the tech investment event’s sponsors, accountancy firm Chiene + Tait, has previously worked with LiberEat to establish its employee share scheme.

Shona Fraser, partner at Chiene + Tait’s Inverness office, said: “Targeting a UK-wide market, the business has excellent growth potential and is building a great team to achieve success.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We’re more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers. If you haven’t already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription: www.scotsman.com/subscriptions