Catering software firm served cash boost

A catering management software firm whose clients include contract caterer Elior and restaurant chain Le Pain Quotidien is looking to take a much larger bite of the US market following a six-figure funding boost.

The firm was launched by Murray McNicol (left) and Willie Biggart. Picture: Dominic Cocozza.

Spoonfed is aimed at organisations supplying catering to businesses, universities, hospitals and many other institutions, and says its software-as-a-service platform creates efficiencies for users and provides a “straightforward” ordering system for their customers.

It has netted £575,000 of development funding from Edinburgh-based Equity Gap, and is planning to add software engineers at its new Glasgow HQ and further customer support staff in the US, where a Denver base will be established to complement its east coast site.

The firm is also looking to roughly double its current headcount by the end of 2019.

Co-founder and MD Willie Biggart said the US will be this year’s main focus. “2018 was the first year that our US revenues matched and exceeded those in the UK. This new funding will help us make further roads into a market eight times larger than the UK.”

He also described 2018 as a “great year”, with monthly revenues growing by more than 140 per cent. “An increase of 300 per cent in set-up fees in the final quarter of 2018 indicates that this growth will accelerate in 2019.”

The firm is present in the UK, Canada, Ireland, Holland, Belgium, France and Australia. Its customers include contract caterers Aramark, and recent US restaurant additions such as Maison Kayser in New York.