Orbisk and the EIC Accelerator: AI That Weighs Kitchen Waste

Restaurants, hotels and canteens throw away food every day, and measuring exactly what and how much is tedious work. Orbisk, a company in Utrecht, installs a device over the kitchen bin: a camera and a scale that photograph and weigh everything thrown away, while image recognition identifies the food. Chefs get a breakdown of their waste and can adjust purchasing and portions.

The European Innovation Council granted €2,412,112 towards a €3.45 million project to make the system scalable. Since the project ended in 2024, Orbisk has raised more than €8 million, says more than 1,000 kitchens in over 40 countries use it and counts Accor, Hyatt and Marriott properties among its customers. The impact numbers are impressive, and almost all of them come from Orbisk.

Where Orbisk Stands Today

In January 2026 Orbisk announced an expansion into Asia Pacific, with a new chief executive, Anastasia Dellis. Its website claims more than 1,000 professional kitchens, average savings of €70,000 per kitchen a year and food waste cuts of up to 70%, and lists customers from Accor and Fairmont to Google and Unilever.

The company's impact report, published in January 2025, put food waste prevented at 1.9 million kg in total, 1.25 million kg of it in 2024, and said the company had expanded to 42 countries. It set a goal of saving 2 billion kg of food by 2029. The figures are derived from Orbisk's own measurements in customer kitchens.

The Technology: A Camera Over the Bin

Orbisk's device sits above the waste bin, weighs each item thrown away and photographs it; image recognition then classifies the food, so kitchens do not have to log waste by hand. During the EIC project, according to the CORDIS report, the company redesigned the hardware to be plug and play, installed by customers "easily under 30 minutes", cut hardware costs despite material price rises of up to 100%, and built infrastructure to keep training its AI models and manage its fleet of devices remotely.

What the EIC Project Promised, and What CORDIS Shows

Binspector aimed to make Orbisk's AI food waste monitor ready for large-scale rollout. The CORDIS report describes the technical results above and cites waste reductions of "up to 70%", savings of more than €30,000 per average kitchen a year and profit margin gains of up to 3%. It gives no installation or customer numbers. The company's own figure for average savings has since risen to €70,000.

1. Scalable plug-and-play hardwareDeliveredSelf-installed in under 30 minutes, per CORDIS.
2. AI food recognition at scaleDeliveredContinuous training and remote fleet management built.
3. International rolloutDelivered1,000+ kitchens in 40+ countries, per the company.
4. Independent impact dataNot publishedSavings and waste figures are self-reported.

What Has Happened Since the Award

The Money

In December 2024 Orbisk raised more than €8 million in a Series A led by Regeneration.VC, co-led by PeakBridge, with Kost Capital, DOEN Participaties, the Brabant development agency BOM and EIT Food's AgriFoodInvest. The money was for AI development, customer integrations and a global team. The EIC award was "grant first", and the EIC Fund is not among the named investors.

Why Europe Should Care

The EU has set targets to cut food waste in restaurants and households, and measuring waste is the first step to cutting it. A Dutch company whose devices do that automatically, and which says it has sold them worldwide, is the kind of practical climate technology the EIC's grant was meant to scale.

The Verdict

Orbisk has not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records, company statements and EU project data, linked throughout.