Regardless of the well-known environmental advantages of recycling, it’s estimated that less than 10% of the world’s plastic will get recycled. Ganiga Innovation appears to carry that share up utilizing AI-enabled robotic waste bins.
Italian startup Ganiga constructed three merchandise to assist higher handle waste and recycling. The primary is a fleet of robotic waste bins, referred to as Hoooly, that use generative AI to find out what’s trash and what’s recycling and type the waste accordingly. The second is a great lid that may be fitted to current waste bins with the identical performance as its bigger bin counterpart.
The corporate additionally has a software program product that permits firms to trace the waste they produce; it gives strategies for the way an organization can scale back waste manufacturing based mostly on its waste information.
Ganiga will probably be exhibiting off its tech as a part of this 12 months’s Startup Battlefield competitors at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, which runs October 27 to 29 at San Francisco’s Moscone West.
Nicolas Zeoli, the founder and CEO of Ganiga, instructed TechCrunch that he’s had desires of constructing the following nice firm, like Fb or Apple, since he was youthful.
He determined to concentrate on waste as a result of he mentioned points surrounding waste administration are very tangible in his native Italy — and it was clear there wasn’t a lot being achieved about it.
“All of us have to reclaim this drawback,” Zeoli mentioned. “I learn 100 articles on this drawback. For instance, in a single 12 months, solely in a single 12 months, in the entire world over 100 million tons of plastic is created and solely 9% is recycled. This can be a very actual drawback.”
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Zeoli launched Ganiga in 2021 and constructed its first prototype in 2022. Zeoli mentioned they determined to concentrate on constructing a bin to resolve this drawback as a result of it offers folks a bodily place to place waste that may guarantee it will get correctly recycled and sorted, and since the bins spit out information that can be utilized for the long run.
Waste administration can also be costly for firms, Zeoli mentioned. Many organizations, particularly in Europe, have ESG mandates to stick to. Zeoli hopes Hoooly might help firms higher monitor their waste manufacturing to assist them scale back waste and waste-related prices down the road.
Ganiga began promoting its bins in 2024 and has since bought greater than 120 robots to clients like Google and to a number of airports, together with those in Bologna, Venice, and Madrid, amongst others.
Zeoli mentioned the corporate made $500,000 in income in 2024 and is already as much as $750,000 in simply the primary 9 months of 2025.
The corporate has additionally raised $1.5 million in pre-seed funding from buyers, together with clear tech VC agency NextSTEP and NextEnergy Capital, amongst others. Ganiga is trying to increase a $3 million seed spherical.
The corporate is gearing as much as launch its newest product in November, the Hooolyfood, which is a software program product that makes use of digital camera photos to find out the precise quantity of meals waste. The corporate plans to delve into additional software-focused merchandise sooner or later, too, Zeoli mentioned, based mostly on the information their present bins and software program is gathering.
Ganiga has targeted on the European market to date, however Zeoli mentioned he’s hoping to broaden into the U.S.; the corporate is even pondering of shifting its headquarters stateside in 2026.
“Ganiga is the primary startup in all of the world to fill one airport with the sensible bins,” Zeoli mentioned. “That is essential as a result of we don’t goal the prototype; we’re a product, and we’re open to the market.”
If you wish to be taught from Ganiga firsthand, and see dozens of further pitches and priceless workshops and make the connections that drive enterprise outcomes, head here to learn more about this year’s Disrupt, going down October 27 to 29 in San Francisco.
