Metafoodx, a foodtech startup using AI to combat food waste and boost restaurant profitability, has raised $9.4 million in funding to scale its real-time analytics platform for commercial kitchens. The round was led by Trustbridge Partners, with participation from BlueRun Ventures and Scalable Vision Capital.

Founded by Fengmin Gong, Metafoodx is building a smarter, more sustainable future for the food industry - one where technology doesn’t just track inventory, but actually predicts and prevents waste before it happens.

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What Metafoodx Does

Metafoodx combines AI-powered vision systems with predictive analytics to monitor food preparation, portioning, and waste in real-time. Mounted above prep stations and disposal bins, their smart camera units detect patterns across every shift, alerting staff and managers to inefficiencies that would otherwise go unnoticed.

This is not just food tracking - it’s AI for operational intelligence, giving kitchens data they can act on instantly to reduce waste, cut costs, and maintain consistency.

“Food waste isn’t just a sustainability problem - it’s an operational leak that bleeds revenue every day,” said founder Fengmin Gong. “We built Metafoodx to stop the leaks before they start.”

What makes Metafoodx stand out isn’t just its AI - it’s how quietly it fits into the daily chaos of a kitchen. The system doesn’t disrupt. It observes, learns, and improves. That’s exactly why it works. Because when your user is short-staffed, moving fast, and under pressure to maintain margins, any friction is a dealbreaker.

This is the insight most founders miss when building for real-world environments: usability isn’t about interface polish - it’s about emotional context. Metafoodx succeeds because it respects how its users work. It understands that the best tech doesn’t demand attention - it earns trust through silence, reliability, and results. Founders building in ops-heavy industries should take note: if your product reduces mental load while increasing visibility, it becomes infrastructure. That’s when adoption stops being optional.

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Why It Matters Now

The foodservice industry is facing a dual crisis: thin margins and mounting environmental pressure. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the U.S. restaurant sector wastes an estimated 22 to 33 billion pounds of food each year. Globally, food waste contributes to nearly 8–10% of greenhouse gas emissions, per the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

At the same time, restaurants are struggling with labor shortages, inconsistent food quality, and rising ingredient costs. These challenges make real-time insights - not just historical reporting - a competitive necessity.

Metafoodx delivers this in a plug-and-play format, integrating seamlessly into daily operations without requiring major hardware overhauls.

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The Market Opportunity

The intersection of foodservice and AI is booming. According to Precedence Research, the global foodtech market is projected to reach $342 billion by 2027, driven by automation, sustainability mandates, and smarter inventory systems.

Simultaneously, the smart kitchen market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 18.5%, with a majority of adoption coming from QSR chains, ghost kitchens, and large-scale food operations looking to streamline operations and reduce costs.

And it’s not just a sustainability play. McKinsey estimates that reducing food waste could add up to $250 billion in economic value globally, and AI-based systems are increasingly being adopted by forward-looking hospitality groups to gain operational transparency at scale.

Metafoodx positions itself at the center of this transformation - a layer of intelligence in the physical kitchen that gives operators full visibility, precision, and control.

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Who’s Backing Metafoodx

The $9.4 million round was led by Trustbridge Partners, with participation from:

• BlueRun Ventures, a veteran VC firm backing data-driven SaaS and hardware companies
  
• Scalable Vision Capital, focused on emerging technologies that marry AI and physical environments
  

These investors recognize the dual value Metafoodx offers: immediate operational savings and long-term ESG alignment.

With this backing, Metafoodx is equipped not only to scale commercially, but also to build integrations with POS systems, kitchen management software, and carbon accounting platforms - further extending its ecosystem value.

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What’s Next for Metafoodx

With fresh capital, Metafoodx will:

• Expand its hardware production and installation teams
  
• Deepen AI model accuracy across more cuisines and kitchen formats
  
• Roll out multi-location analytics dashboards for enterprise clients
  
• Partner with sustainability reporting firms to help clients quantify impact
  

The company is also working on automated coaching tools, where managers can receive daily insights and recommended actions based on real-time waste patterns and labor behavior.

The long-term vision? To become the invisible intelligence layer behind every professional kitchen - empowering chefs, protecting margins, and driving a smarter, greener food system.