Ganiga secures €2.5M to expand its AI-powered food waste technology

Italian deeptech startup Ganiga has closed a €1.5 million equity round to keep building its waste-management tech and to sell it more widely. The round was led by Vivenda, the Italian contract catering company, with support from London-based NextSTEP and three angel investors.

That new cash comes on top of €1 million from Smart&Start Italia, the state-backed programme run by Invitalia. Put together, Ganiga says it now has €2.5 million to work with.

The company started in the province of Pisa and made its name with robotic systems that sort waste. It has sold more than 300 devices, with deployments in airports, shopping centres and large businesses across Italy, Japan, Australia and other European countries. More recently, it has moved into food waste with HooolyFood, an AI system built for catering operators.

HooolyFood uses cameras placed above waste containers to identify discarded food without weighing it. The point is not just measurement for its own sake. Ganiga says the data helps operators see where waste is coming from, tighten purchasing, improve menu planning and keep a closer eye on costs. The system was developed in less than a year and is already running in operations that serve more than 30,000 meals a day.

Ganiga is also folding the data from its devices into a single platform to analyse waste patterns, estimate costs and monitor how full containers are getting. Beyond that, it wants to automate ingredient ordering and menu planning, and it is developing sensors for existing containers so it can track municipal and other waste streams too. The company will start by expanding deeper into contract catering with Vivenda, then move toward event catering, hotels and other foodservice settings.