"Allows us to accelerate": food waste founders celebrate tasty investment

Orbisk’s technology works by taking photos of trash-bound food. It categorises the waste using AI, then offers actionable advice to kitchen staff on how they can minimise rubbish in future.

The product is already used in more than 40 countries, in businesses ranging from cafes and hotels to cruise ships. The company writes on LinkedIn that it will use its latest investment to further expand internationally.

"The Series A investment fuels Orbisk's ambitious growth plans," says CEO and co-founder Olaf van der Veen. "This financial boost allows us to accelerate the impact we strive for, as food waste regrettably transcends borders. By enhancing our presence in the USA, and eventually expanding into Asia, we can greatly increase the amount of food saved.”

Research for the World Food Program suggests nearly a fifth of all food is wasted. This impacts climate change due to unnecessary carbon emissions from food preparation and cooking, and biodiversity loss (as a result of farming products that go uneaten).

Orbisk has been marketing its technologies as a way of helping businesses to lower their carbon footprints, while also saving money by limiting their food waste.

Other similar startups in the food waste space include Dublin-based Positive Carbon and Swiss startup Kitro which both also use AI to record and analyse restaurant waste.

Orbisk’s €8 million series A round is led by Los Angeles-based venture capitalist fund Regeneration.VC. It also includes money from PeakBridge in Luxembourg and Kost Capital in Copenhagen.

Previous investors have committed cash to the pot too, including EIT Food in Leuven, Belgium.