AN Aberdeen-based food allergy app has won office space worth £10,000 in a local business competition.

LiberEat app is celebrating its success in the #StartMeUp Pitch competition which asked local businesses to submit short business pitches online, with five finalists making it through to pitch on 7 December.

LiberEat’s founder, Barry Leaper, who made the case for his ingredient checking app to #StartMeUp’s judging panel, grew up in North East Scotland.

He developed the idea for LiberEat having spent most of his career in private equity and investment banking, following his graduation from the University of Aberdeen with a degree in finance.

Leaper has a fiancée and close family and friends who have to avoid certain ingredients because of intolerances and medical conditions, which inspired LiberEat.

The app makes it easier for people with food restrictions to eat out at restaurants, cook at home and shop at the supermarket, whether they have food allergies, are vegan or vegetarian or need to avoid certain foods for religious reasons.

The company was awarded six months of free Orega office space worth £10,000.

Finalists The Gin Room Scotland, Almascore, The Property Angel and Maisie-Jane.com also pitched to the Dragon’s Den-style judging panel, which included local business leaders Yekemi Otaru of YO! Marketing and Carolyn Maniukiewicz of Ideas in Partnership, as well as Orega’s managing director, Zach Douglas.

Douglas praised the entrepreneurs’ ideas.

He said: “I thought the StartMeUp Pitch competition was great, there were some very strong business ideas coming from the Aberdeen finalists.

“The future is bright for these entrepreneurs, and we look forward to watching them grow with Orega.”

He said Leaper’s well researched pitch was part of the reason why it won the competition.

He added: “We chose LiberEat as the winner as Barry had done significant amounts of research into his business, he had secured highly credible third-party contributors and we could see the scalability potential, both nationally and internationally.”

Leaper encouraged other entrepreneurs to enter the competition.

He said: “For anyone looking to enter future #StartMeUp Pitches with Orega, just go for it!

“It was a really great experience, and we have learnt a lot about our business in the process.

“It was really great to win the competition, especially against a very strong group of entrepreneurs.

“Orega Aberdeen will be a great place to take LiberEat to the next level.”

In the UK in 2015 there were more than 25,000 hospital admissions for allergy suffers alone, according to NHS 2016 figures.

There was also more than £1 billion a year spent by the NHS nationally treating allergies.

LiberEat aims to positively impact people’s health and the NHS budget.