Dines App Raises £1.2M to Make Eating Out Better Value While Fighting Food Poverty

Dines App, a UK food technology company, has raised £1.2 million to develop its mobile platform for restaurant deals and vouchers with a built-in social impact mechanism. The app allows users to browse and access discounted deals and vouchers at a range of restaurants and dining venues, and for every order completed through the platform, a meal is donated to a person experiencing food poverty through a partnership with a charity food bank or hunger relief organisation.

The model sits at the intersection of two significant consumer and social trends. On the consumer side, the cost of living has made eating out more expensive relative to incomes, and demand for digital deal-finding tools — apps that surface discounts, loyalty schemes, and promotional offers from restaurants and food businesses — has grown accordingly. On the social side, food insecurity in the UK has risen significantly over recent years, with food bank usage reaching record levels and a growing proportion of households experiencing the combination of energy costs, housing costs, and food price inflation that creates genuine food poverty.

Dines' one-for-one charitable donation model — familiar from brands like TOMS shoes and Warby Parker in other consumer categories — gives the app a social identity that goes beyond the functional benefit of deal discovery. Users who choose to eat out using Dines rather than a competitor deal platform are not just saving money; they are also contributing to addressing food poverty through their spending. This creates a values alignment for the brand that is particularly resonant with the demographic of younger, socially conscious consumers who are also the most active users of mobile deal and voucher platforms.

For restaurants, listing deals on Dines provides access to a customer base that is motivated to discover and try new places, with the added benefit of a social impact association that some brands will value for its own sake. The funding will be used to develop the app, expand the restaurant and deal partner network, and scale the meal donation programme in partnership with food charity organisations.

Sources

• Dines App — company website