Rayner Loi and Lumitics: The Singapore AI Startup Using Computer Vision to Combat Commercial Food Waste

Food waste is one of those problems that seems too big for any single solution — billions of tonnes globally, much of it from commercial kitchens where overproduction is the safer operational bet than running short. But a Singapore startup called Lumitics, founded by Rayner Loi when he dropped out of university in 2017, has been quietly building a thoroughly practical answer: AI-powered camera systems that capture images of discarded food, identify what type of food is being thrown away, measure the quantity, and log the timing. The goal is prevention, not just measurement — giving chefs and kitchen operators the data they need to stop waste before it happens.

Lumitics' system is already deployed across hotels and large commercial kitchens in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. Its computer vision setup captures images above waste bins and uses AI to classify the food type, weight, and disposal patterns, enabling operators to pinpoint where and why waste occurs. Loi emphasises that the system isn't about blame — chefs can get defensive when first confronted with waste data — but about surfacing operational patterns that are invisible to human observation alone. Chefs, he notes, are problem solvers by nature; given clear data on what's being overproduced, they start adjusting recipes, portion sizes, and ordering quantities almost immediately.

Loi's insight was that most food waste initiatives focus on the bottom of the waste hierarchy — redistribution, recycling, and composting — while ignoring the most effective intervention: prevention. "Even the best redistribution or recycling solution cannot recover value after food has already been overproduced," he says. Lumitics fills this gap by making waste visible as a performance metric rather than just an environmental issue, and by connecting sustainability with economics. Commercial kitchens reduce waste when teams recognise it improves margins, reduces unnecessary work, and enhances operational efficiency alongside the environmental benefits.

The startup's trajectory reflects a broader shift in Singapore's deep-tech ecosystem. Loi's journey from university dropout to CEO of an AI-powered sustainability company with regional operations mirrors a growing recognition that Singapore can produce not just enterprise SaaS or fintech startups, but hardware-enabled AI companies solving physical-world problems. Lumitics was acquired by global food waste measurement company Winnow in 2026, validating the technology and providing a platform for international scaling.

Why it matters for Singapore: Food waste is a particularly acute issue in a country that imports over 90% of its food — every tonne wasted represents not just a financial loss but a supply chain vulnerability. Lumitics' approach — using AI to tackle the prevention end of the waste hierarchy — is the kind of pragmatic, measurable application that Singapore's AI ecosystem needs more of. It's not about building the most advanced general-purpose AI; it's about deploying computer vision and machine learning to solve a specific, high-impact problem in a way that scales across geographies.