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London-based AI food waste measurement company Winnow has acquired Singapore-founded Lumitics to expand its presence in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. Financial terms were not disclosed. Winnow's platform is used in almost 100 countries and helps kitchens save more than $100 million annually on food costs. Lumitics, founded in 2017, operates in over 20 countries across Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, serving clients including Accor, Hyatt, Marriott, and Four Seasons. Both companies use computer vision and machine learning to track food waste. Lumitics customers will maintain access to their existing data during a phased transition to Winnow's platform and hardware in the coming months. Winnow raised $10 million in series C funding in 2023.

Winnow buys Lumitics as hotel kitchens turn to AI to cut food waste. The acquisition brings Lumitics's regional hotel relationships into Winnow's platform as Asia-Pacific hospitality groups digitise back-of-house operations faster 16 Jul, 2026 Winnow, the London-headquartered AI food waste measurement company, has acquired Singapore-founded Lumitics, in a deal that strengthens its position in Asia Pacific's hospitality technology market. The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the transaction. The acquisition brings Lumitics's regional deployments and hotel relationships into Winnow's global platform, which is used by foodservice and hospitality operators including IKEA, Hilton, Marriott, and Accor. Lumitics, founded in Singapore in 2017, has deployed its technology across more than 20 countries in Asia Pacific and the Middle East, serving hotel groups including Accor, Hyatt, Marriott, and Four Seasons. For Winnow, the transaction is less about buying a new product category than consolidating a regional footprint in a sector where adoption is still uneven. Commercial kitchens produce large volumes of avoidable waste, but many still rely on manual tracking, periodic audits or no measurement at all. Winnow said Lumitics customers will be migrated over time to its AI platform, including Winnow VisionAI and its "Throw & Go" capability, which automatically identifies and weighs discarded food without requiring kitchen staff to scan items or enter data manually. Existing Lumitics customers will retain access to their data during the transition, the company said. Why Asia Pacific matters. Asia Pacific is a strategically important market for food waste technology because of the scale of its hospitality sector and the region's exposure to rising food, labour and energy costs. The region's hotel industry has rebounded strongly since pandemic-era restrictions were lifted, particularly in markets such as Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Japan. That recovery has put pressure back on buffet operations, banquet kitchens and large hotel F&B outlets, where overproduction can be significant but difficult to quantify. Food waste is also becoming a policy issue. Singapore, where Lumitics was founded, has made food waste reduction part of its broader zero-waste agenda. The National Environment Agency said the country generated 755,000 tonnes of food waste in 2023, with only 18 per cent recycled. Large commercial and industrial food waste generators are also being pushed towards better segregation and treatment under Singapore's Resource Sustainability Act. Globally, the problem is large enough to attract more than corporate sustainability teams. The United Nations Environment Programme estimated that households, food service and retail wasted 1.05 billion tonnes of food in 2022. Food service accounted for 28 per cent of that total. Food loss and waste are also estimated to contribute between 8 and 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. For hotels, however, the argument is often financial before it is environmental. Food waste reduction can directly lower procurement costs, improve production planning, and reduce disposal expenses. Winnow says its systems help kitchens collectively save more than US$100 million in food costs annually across almost 100 countries. A regional player folded into a global platform. Lumitics was backed by Nicholas and Jonathon Cocks of Velocity Ventures, as well as impact angel investors, including Franck Courmont and PropertyGuru founder Steve Melhuish. The company was among the earlier Southeast Asian startups to apply computer vision and analytics to commercial kitchen waste. Its pitch was straightforward: restaurants and hotels could not cut what they could not measure. That made it relevant to large hospitality groups managing multiple kitchen formats, cuisines and service models across markets. "When we started Lumitics in Singapore in 2017, our belief was simple: kitchens could not reduce what they could not see," said Rayner Loi, co-founder and CEO of Lumitics. He added that the company's deployments had given it insight into how waste patterns differ across cuisines, kitchen formats and hospitality environments. That regional knowledge is likely the main asset for Winnow. The company already has the global customer base and AI stack. What Lumitics offers is a local operating history in markets where deployment, training and kitchen adoption can be more complex than the technology itself. Winnow operates from London, Chicago, Dubai, Singapore, and Cluj-Napoca. With Lumitics, it gains a deeper base in Asia-Pacific at a time when hotel groups are standardising sustainability reporting across properties and looking for tools that can produce comparable operational data. "Asia Pacific is one of the most critical frontiers in the fight against food waste, and Lumitics has built a strong regional platform through its customer relationships, technical know-how and deployment experience," said Marc Zornes, co-founder and CEO of Winnow. Competitive pressure and consolidation. The deal also points to a maturing food waste technology market. Winnow competes globally with companies such as Leanpath, Orbisk, and KITRO - all of which target commercial kitchens with varying combinations of weighing systems, image recognition, analytics, and reporting tools. In Southeast Asia, the competitive landscape is more fragmented. Some companies focus on redistribution of surplus food, such as Singapore-based treatsure, while others address supply-chain waste, inventory management or food rescue rather than kitchen-level measurement. Lumitics sat closer to the enterprise hospitality segment, which made it a logical acquisition target for a global operator seeking regional depth. The challenge for Winnow will be execution. AI tools in kitchens only work if they fit into daily service routines and do not slow staff down. Hotels are high-turnover environments, and technology adoption can suffer if systems require too much manual input or if chefs do not trust the data. Winnow's "Throw & Go" model is designed to reduce that friction, but scaling across diverse Asia-Pacific kitchens will still require training, support and localisation. The acquisition gives Winnow a stronger story for global hotel groups operating in the region: one platform, more local support, and a larger dataset across Asia Pacific kitchen environments. It also gives Lumitics customers access to a broader product roadmap and international benchmarking. For the wider market, the deal suggests that food waste technology is moving from pilot projects to operational infrastructure. As hotel operators face tighter margins, sustainability reporting demands and greater scrutiny over waste, the winners will not be the companies with the most polished dashboards. They will be the ones that can make waste measurement routine inside busy kitchens, and prove the savings hold over time. Editor, e27