Diet Chef secures £1.5m from LendingCrowd

Diet food home delivery specialist Diet Chef has secured £1.5m in debt finance from Edinburgh-based crowdlending platform LendingCrowd.

Diet Chef was launched by Kevin Dorren and Andrew Veitch in 2008

The firm, which was launched by entrepreneurs Kevin Dorren and Andrew Veitch from a garage in 2008, is now the largest of its kind in the UK with 150,000 customers and a £15m turnover.

Dorren said it was “important for the company to have the right funding package in place to drive future growth and to work with a like-minded entrepreneurial organisation”.

He added: “LendingCrowd thinks like we do, so it was a real bonus for us to be able to partner with another expanding online business that shares our vision.”

LendingCrowd was launched last year by chief executive Stuart Lunn and chairman Bill Dobbie. Since then it has loaned more than £3.7m to 35 small firms.

Lunn said: “Many high street banks still don’t cater well for high-growth firms or SMEs in sectors with specific funding needs. LendingCrowd can offer a competitive and straightforward package with the backing of the 1,300 investors on our platform.”