Ganiga will showcase its waste-sorting robots at TechCrunch Disrupt

Despite the well-known environmental benefits of recycling, it’s estimated that less than 10% of the world’s plastic gets recycled. Ganiga Innovation looks to bring that percentage up using AI-enabled robotic discarded bins.  

Italian startup Ganiga built three products to assistance amended negociate discarded and recycling. The archetypal is a fleet of robotic discarded bins, called Hoooly, that use generative AI to determine what is trash and what is recycling and benignant the discarded accordingly. The 2nd is simply a astute lid that tin beryllium fitted to existing discarded bins with the aforesaid functionality as its larger bin counterpart.  

The company also has a software merchandise that allows companies to way the discarded they produce; it offers suggestions for how a institution tin trim discarded accumulation based connected its discarded data.  

Ganiga will beryllium showing disconnected its tech arsenic portion of this year’s Startup Battlefield competition at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, which runs from October 27 done 30 in San Francisco.  

Nicolas Zeoli, the founder and CEO of Ganiga, told TechCrunch that he’s had dreams of gathering the adjacent great company, similar Facebook oregon Apple, since helium was younger.  

He decided to absorption connected waste because helium said issues surrounding discarded absorption are precise tangible successful his autochthonal Italy — and it was wide there wasn’t much being done astir it.  

“We each request to reclaim this problem,” Zeoli said. “I work 100 articles connected this problem. For example, successful 1 year, lone successful 1 year, successful the whole world over 100 cardinal tons of integrative is created and lone 9% is recycled. This is simply a very real problem.” 

Zeoli launched Ganiga in 2021 and built its archetypal prototype successful 2022. Zeoli said they decided to absorption connected gathering a bin to lick this occupation due to the fact that it not lone gives  people a physical place to enactment discarded that tin guarantee it gets decently recycled and sorted, but besides due to the fact that the bins spit retired information that tin beryllium utilized for the future.  

Waste absorption is besides costly for companies, Zeoli said. Many organizations, particularly successful Europe, person ESG mandates to adhere to. Zeoli hopes Hoooly can assistance companies amended way their discarded accumulation to help them trim discarded and waste-related costs down the line. 

Ganiga started selling its bins successful 2024 and has since sold much than 120 robots to customers like Google and multiple airports including the ones in Bologna, Venice, and Madrid, among others.  

Zeoli said the institution made $500,000 successful gross successful 2024 and is already up to $750,000 successful conscionable the archetypal 9 months of 2025.  

The institution has besides raised $1.5 cardinal successful pre-seed backing from investors including cleanable tech VC firm NextSTEP and Next Energy Capital, among others. Ganiga is looking to rise a $3 cardinal effect round.  

The institution is gearing up to motorboat its latest merchandise successful November, the Hooolyfood, which is a bundle merchandise that uses camera images to determine the nonstop magnitude of nutrient waste. The institution plans to delve into further software-focused products in the future, too, Zeoli said, based connected the information their existent bins and bundle is collecting.  

Ganiga has focused connected the European marketplace thus far, but Zeoli said he’s hoping to grow into the U.S.; the institution is adjacent reasoning of moving its office stateside successful 2026.  

“Ganiga is the archetypal startup successful all the world to capable 1 airport with the astute bins,” Zeoli said. “This is important due to the fact that we don’t people the prototype, we are a product, and we are open to the market.” 

If you privation to larn from Ganiga firsthand, and spot dozens of additional pitches, invaluable workshops and marque the connections that thrust concern results, head present to larn much astir this year’s Disrupt, held October 27 to 29 successful San Francisco.