Wriggle, an app to fill empty tables in local food and drink businesses, is planning to expand to seven new cities by 2020.
The app has surpassed its crowdfunding target three weeks before closure, originally aiming for £600,000.
The business partners with local eateries in different UK cities and allows them to advertise timely deals on their food and drink.
The aim is for local businesses to reduce food waste by advertising empty tables or selling food at lower prices which would go to waste.
Founder Rob Hall told BusinessCloud how the business was originally due to be a firm to help reduce food waste by selling at lower prices, but found that attracting customers to the businesses could do the same.
“We’ve evolved from initial helping local businesses reduce food waste by, at the end of the day, reducing the price of food that was going to go to waste and get customers to buy it, to now evolving to filling empty tables,” he said.
“We handpick really nice businesses so we’ve almost become a marketing platform to get customers in a sustainable way.
“I was a lawyer before but didn’t enjoy the law after university, so moved down to Bristol to trial this idea to help independent businesses to reduce food waste, and we created a trial and it’s evolved from there.”
The app currently operates in Bristol, Brighton and Cardiff, with plans to next launch in Birmingham and Bath.
Customers can purchase the offers and receive a redeemable code to take directly to the local business.
Hall said the overfunding will allow Wriggle to launch in seven cities instead of the originally planned three.
He added: “The response has been great and it has meant that over this time we have stepped up our goals in terms of number of cities we are going to.
“It’s about getting ourselves to lots of new cities so geographic footprint a lot quicker.
“This is the first growth phase but we should be able to do a lot more afterwards.”
The firm is based in Bristol and currently employs 15 members of staff.