Draft:Winnow Solutions
AI food waste management tracker
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Winnow Solutions (brand name just Winnow) is a UK based Artificial Intelligence business helping hospitality and foodservice businesses reduce food waste. Founded in 2013 by Marc Zornes and Kevin Duffy, the company headquarters in London has more than 3,500 locations using its technology in over 90 countries.[1]
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Submission declined on 2 May 2026 by Pythoncoder (talk). This draft appears to contain text generated by a large language model (such as ChatGPT). You cannot use LLMs to generate article content.
Declined by Pythoncoder 3 months ago.LLM-generated pages with certain obvious signs of being machine generated may be deleted without notice. Instead, only summarize in your own words a range of independent, reliable, published sources that discuss the subject. See the advice page on large language models for more information. | |
Comment: In accordance with Wikipedia's Conflict of interest guideline, I disclose that I have a conflict of interest regarding the subject of this article. ElliotGreenfieldatWinnow (talk) 07:23, 29 April 2026 (UTC)
Kevin Duffy
| Type | Private company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Food technology, artificial intelligence |
| Founded | 2013 |
| Founders | Marc Zornes Kevin Duffy |
| Headquarters | London, England, United Kingdom |
Number of locations | London, Chicago, Dubai, Singapore, Cluj-Napoca |
Key people | Marc Zornes (CEO) |
| Products | VisionAI, VisionAI+, VisionControl, Track |
| Website | winnowsolutions |
Winnow has been featured widely in publications like The New York Times[2], BBC[3], Reuters[4]. Winnow has been a B corporation since 2017[5].
Background
Food waste is a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that 931 million tonnes of food is wasted every year globally (2021 Food Waste Index Report). The same report found that around 26% of the food waste came from foodservice and hospitality establishments. WWF states that between 8%-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions are from food waste.[6]
Winnow’s data collected in kitchens around the world shows that a typical kitchen wastes around 5%-15% of the food purchased [1]. This is often because culinary teams are forced to make complex forecasting decisions with imperfect information. Food waste is challenging to accurately measure due to operational constraints in the commercial kitchen.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s case study of Winnow’s approach found that kitchens underestimate how much they waste, often by half. This leads to poor purchasing, forecasting and ultimately more waste after service. The report concludes that users of Winnow’s technology could see food waste reductions of 40%-70% within a year of use.[7]
History
Founding
Winnow was founded in 2013 by Marc Zornes and Kevin Duffy in London [8]. Before founding Winnow, Zornes was working at McKinsey, where he co-authored the McKinsey Global Institute report Resource Revolution: Meeting the World’s Energy Materials, Food and Water Needs. This report was the moment that made Zornes think seriously about the size of the global food waste problem and believed it was a problem worth solving. This was one of the main reasons Zornes went on to found Winnow, initially serving just a single staff restaurant.
After the initial success, The University of Exeter's Centre for Circular Economy published a case study characterising Winnow's approach as one that attracted investor interest by demonstrating measurable financial returns alongside environmental impact.[9]
By January 2016, Winnow was working with over 200 kitchens including those from Compass Group and Accor. At this point TechCrunch described Winnow as a startup on a mission to help the hospitality industry cut down on food waste by making the kitchen smarter. [8]
Funding
In January 2016, Winnow raised a $3.3 million Series. A round from investors including Mustard Seed and Axel Johnson's D:Ax fund.[8] [10]
A $10 million Series C round closed in June 2023, with investors including ArcTern Ventures, Bridge Nine, Mustard Seed, Circularity Capital, Ingka Investments, and Novax.[11]
| Round | Date | Amount | Notable investors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Series A | January 2016 | $3.3 million | Mustard Seed, D:Ax (Axel Johnson) | TechCrunch[8] |
| Series A extension | October 2017 | $7.4 million | Circularity Capital, Mustard Seed | CleanTechnica[11] |
| EIB loan | October 2019 | €7.5 million | European Investment Bank | EIB press release[12] |
| Series B | October 2019 | $12 million | Ingka Group, Mustard Seed, Circularity Capital, D:Ax, The Ingenious Group | TechCrunch[13] |
| Series C | June 2023 | $10 million | ArcTern Ventures, Bridge Nine, Mustard Seed, Circularity Capital, Ingka Investments, Novax | Tech.eu[10] |
Technology
Winnow develops food waste monitoring systems for commercial kitchens.The AI technology consists of a camera and connected weighing scale. The camera is installed above the bins in kitchens with the weighing scale beneath the bin. A computer vision system photographs discarded food, identifies the food type, records its weight, and estimates the associated cost value of the waste.[14] In a 2024 feature on artificial intelligence and food waste, The New York Times described such systems as using cameras and algorithms to distinguish between different types of discarded food, including prepared dishes and inedible scraps. [2]
Data from connected devices is collected in a cloud-based analytics platform, Winnow Hub, which provides reporting by food type, service period, and kitchen station.[9] The Caterer reported in 2022 that contract caterer ISS had committed to a 50% reduction in food waste by 2027 using Winnow's technology.[15]
Skift reported in December 2025 that all kitchens using Winnow’s AI food waste technology typically cut waste by around 50%.[1] The article also stated that operators using the system were collectively reporting more than US$100 million in annual food cost savings.[16]
Major deployments
IKEA
In 2017, IKEA UK & Ireland began piloting Winnow's technology in its in-store restaurants. By 2020, INGKA Group, the largest IKEA franchisee, had selected Winnow as its global food waste technology partner, scaling the system to 30 countries.[17]
INGKA Group announced in September 2022 that it had reduced food waste by 54% across its IKEA restaurant operations against a 2017 baseline. This saving was equivalent to 20 million meals and avoiding 36,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents, or 37 million euros ($37 million) in financial terms.[18][19]
Hilton
Winnow has collaborated with Hilton on food waste reduction programmes in the Middle East. Food Tank, an independent food systems publication, reported in September 2023 that Hilton's Green Ramadan initiative, which used Winnow's AI tracking, had achieved a 61% reduction in post-consumer food waste across three hotels in Qatar, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia during Ramadan 2023.[20]
Business Insider reported in 2024 that a “Green Breakfast” initiative across 13 Hilton hotels in the UAE used Winnow’s data to inform operational adjustments to the breakfast buffet. Behavioural messaging was also introduced to encourage less wasteful behaviours from guests. Over a four-month period, the initiative saw food waste cut by 76% for pre-consumer, or kitchen, waste and by 55% for post-consumer waste.[21]
Other operators
Green Lodging News reported in July 2024 that Mandarin Oriental had achieved a 36% reduction in food waste across four pilot hotels using Winnow's technology, with $207,000 in annualised net savings and 66 tonnes of food eliminated per year. Mandarin Oriental announced a rollout to all hotels by the end of 2025.[22]
Recognition
In 2016, Winnow was named Startup of the Year at the Guardian Sustainable Business Awards. The same year, it was included in Wired magazine's Europe's 100 Hottest Startups list . In 2025, Winnow was included in The Sunday Times Best Places to Work list in the UK, in the mid-sized companies category.[23]
On 31 March 2026, UN Tourism and the United Nations Environment Programme named Winnow as a founding partner of the Recipe of Change initiative, alongside Accor, Club Med, Hilton, Iberostar, Radisson, Six Senses, and TUI Group, aimed at reducing food waste across the global hospitality sector[24]
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