AI-powered food waste pioneer Zest has opened a £1m fundraiser to develop its boutique model into a full-blown software-as-a-service (SaaS) business and begin scaling rapidly by early 2027.
The end-to-end software analyses data from across suppliers’ manufacturing process and connects the dots with AI to understand where and why food is being wasted – faster than a human.
Pulling disparate data together into a ‘waste map’ and providing real-time alerts to busy factory and line managers, the technology can also then help identify ways to push edible but unsatisfactory products or ingredients into redistribution networks like FareShare, rather than into anaerobic digestion.
Already partially grant-funded, the company will need to raise just £600k from a sale of equity to complete its £1m fundraising round, after which it will take on new staff in its tech team, and hire a salesperson to work alongside co-founder Dini McGrath. With one prior angel investor potentially lined up to contribute another £400k, the company is just £200k short of its target.
Having worked with Nestlé in its York confectionery factory over the past year to develop its technology, Zest has now run a series of tests across lines from a range of manufacturers from ready meal makers to large bakeries.
In each two-week pilot, Zest was able to identify preventable waste that amounted to 10% to 60% of total wastage from the tested production line. The company now has a backlog of customers waiting for pilot tests.
“There are so many moving pieces in a factory, that it can be hard to focus on all of the variables that can drive waste, if you don’t spot it early enough,” McGrath explained.
By inputting the possible operational levers – oven temperature, ingredients mix, process timings – the AI examines quality and manufacturing data to model each production process’ effect on the line’s output.
“We understand the changes they can make in the factory, and then the data and interdependencies – we pull that together and present [managers] with real-time alerts to help them make better decisions,” McGrath said.
“Whether that’s tweaking the oven temperature or making a very small change to the recipe of the next batch, it optimises yield and resource efficiency, ultimately reducing the waste that manufacturers produce.”
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