From coffee beans to milk, meet the Singapore-based start-up using AI to vet ingredients

Agricultural businesses spend millions of dollars each year shipping samples back and forth to one another. But one Singapore-based tech company claims to have found a solution to the industry’s logistical costs and carbon footprint. “The current process is that whenever you have a buyer and a seller, the buyer will require physical samples before they place orders. You can typically imagine a two to three round process between a buyer and a seller,” Profile Print founder and CEO Alan Lai told "CNBC Tech: The Edge.” “Profile Print digitalizes food ingredients, so that buyers and sellers no longer need to ship samples physically,” Lai added. Using its patented digital fingerprint technology, Profile Print quickly analyzes the identity and quality of ingredients. In 2024, Profile Print signed agreements with Brazil’s two largest coffee manufacturers, as well as Instituto CNA, a government-backed institution representing Brazil’s agricultural sectors. “Typically for our clients who do not have Profile Print, they would need to actually roast this green coffee bean, grind it to a certain size, brew the coffee, let it cool down and get a team of people to taste it before they can make a decision of buying or selling,” Lai said. Through the startup’s platform, agribusinesses can create their own artificial intelligence models, which are able to assess whether the raw ingredient is a good fit. Traders can also build AI models for specific clients to determine whether the product fits their look and flavor preferences. Watch Lai demonstrate Profile Print’s technology in the video above. #CNBC #AI #FoodTechnology ----- Subscribe: http://cnb.cx/2wuoARM CNBC International TV: https://cnb.cx/2NGytpz LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/cnbc-international/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cnbci Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cnbcinternational Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cnbcinternational/ Threads: https://www.threads.net/@cnbcinternational X: https://twitter.com/CNBCi Telegram: https://t.me/cnbci WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/CNBCiWhatsApp