The entrepreneur who hired chefs through Tinder has sold her cookery startup for £50,000

Ariella Young, the founder of food startup Mychefit, has sold her company for nearly £50,000 after struggling to raise the additional investment she needed to grow the business.

Mychefit, a platform that allows people to hire a chef online and have them come and cook a meal at their home, was acquired by an undisclosed catering company in the UK.

"I have sold it for just under £50,000," said Young, who used Tinder to hire chefs on the platform.

"It was profitable but I could not raise VC money," she told Business Insider by email. "I was afraid that it was going to be a small, profitable, family style business. I have met with more than 10 food and tech VC firms in London but they all saw Mychefit as a lifestyle business that cannot scale in a big way. Maybe they were right or maybe I was too early in the market."

Angel investors backed Young's business with £50,000 so it's unlikely that the exit will provide significant returns for any of Mychefit's stakeholders.

Venture capitalists are being more cautious about where they invest their money in 2016, according to Mark Tluszcz, cofounder and CEO of Mangrove Capital Partners, and one of the first investors in Skype.

Young said that she also feared Mychefit would struggle to compete with Uber Eats and Amazon Fresh when they arrive in the UK.

"It has been an incredible learning process for us and we got to meet over 300 brilliant chefs," added Young.

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