CATERING booking platform Feast It has raised a total of £2.7m from its latest backers – including a number of high-profile Oxfordshire investors.

They include John Ayton MBE, of Links of London, Annoushka and Orlabar Brown, Guy Berryman, of Coldplay who is based in Chipping Norton, and Leslie Scott, the inventor of the Jenga game.

The latest funding round brings the total financial backing to date to £2.7 million.

READ AGAIN: Catering start-up Feast It secures £680,000

Other investors include Jon Claydon, ex-head of advertising agency Claydon Heeley Jones Mason, former chairman of The Hut Group Richard Pennycook, and serial entrepreneur and star of Dragon’s Den Sarah Willingham.

Launched in 2017 by childhood friends Hugo Campbell and Digby Vollrath, Feast It has curated a diverse range of over 650 of the UK’s top caterers and mobile bars to book for all kinds of events, spanning from corporate occasions to weddings.

Last year Feast It fed over three million people at weddings, private parties and company events across the UK, including celebrity clients Tom Cruise, Lewis Hamilton and Anne Hathaway.

Corporate clients also included Disney, Facebook, Amazon, The Financial Times and Warner Bros.

While it is mainly an online marketplace for private party catering, Feast It has also branched out into large public events and provided food and drinks at 2018 London Pride, Secret Cinema, and ZSL London Zoo Lates.

The company grew by more than 1,000 per cent in 2018, reaching over £2.5m worth of enquiries per month last year, and is currently targeting a 360 per cent growth in 2019.

Co-founder and CEO, Digby Vollrath said: “People want the food and drink to be a central talking point at their event; it’s no longer just an afterthought.

“We carefully consider every supplier we work with to enable us to deliver exceptional food and drinks to every client.”

As well as streamlining the booking process, Feast It allows clients to uniquely tailor their catering to meet their personal requirements, whether that is a bespoke menu, finding the perfect set-up to complement an event’s theme, or allowing guests to customise their meals.

M Vollrath added: “We are incredibly fortunate to be supported by a series of highly sought-after investors who share our passion.

“This funding will enable us to continue to drive our commitment to support small business partners by helping them grow. In 2019, we’re aiming to quadruple the amount we’re making for our supplier partners.

“We have big growth plans and we’re firmly set on full UK coverage, with a continued push to find the best suppliers across the country, starting with Edinburgh and Belfast.

“Or top suppliers earned more than £200,000 each in 2018 through our platform, and we remain dedicated to building the best tools to help the fantastic small businesses we work with.”

Investor David Abrahamovitch, founder of dining chain Grind, said: “Feast It has huge ambitions for the next couple of years and it’s great to support them.”