Regardless of the well-known environmental advantages of recycling, it’s estimated that lower than 10% of the world’s plastic will get recycled. Ganiga Innovation seems to deliver 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 kind the waste accordingly. The second is a brilliant lid that may be fitted to present waste bins with the identical performance as its bigger bin counterpart.
The corporate additionally has a software program product that permits corporations to trace the waste they produce; it presents recommendations for the way an organization can cut back waste manufacturing primarily based on its waste knowledge.
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, informed TechCrunch that he’s had goals of constructing the following nice firm, like Fb or Apple, since he was youthful.
He determined to deal with 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.
“We all need to reclaim this problem,” Zeoli mentioned. “I read 100 articles on this problem. For example, in one year, only in one year, in the whole world over 100 million tons of plastic is created and only 9% is recycled. This is a very real problem.”
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Zeoli launched Ganiga in 2021 and constructed its first prototype in 2022. Zeoli mentioned they determined to deal with 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 knowledge that can be utilized for the longer term.
Waste administration can be costly for corporations, Zeoli mentioned. Many organizations, particularly in Europe, have ESG mandates to stick to. Zeoli hopes Hoooly will help corporations higher observe their waste manufacturing to assist them cut 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 prospects 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 traders, together with clear tech VC agency NextSTEP and NextEnergy Capital, amongst others. Ganiga is seeking 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 digicam photographs 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, primarily based on the information their present bins and software program is amassing.
Ganiga has centered on the European market up to now, however Zeoli mentioned he’s hoping to increase into the U.S.; the corporate is even considering of transferring its headquarters stateside in 2026.
“Ganiga is the first startup in all the world to fill one airport with the smart bins,” Zeoli mentioned. “This is important because we don’t target the prototype; we are a product, and we are open to the market.”
If you wish to be taught from Ganiga firsthand, and see dozens of further pitches and useful workshops and make the connections that drive enterprise outcomes, head right here to be taught extra about this 12 months’s Disrupt, happening October 27 to 29 in San Francisco.
