Cato has raised €6 million to automate a public procurement market that remains heavily dependent on manual work. The Milan startup is betting that Italy’s complexity can become an advantage rather than an obstacle to expansion. Its AI tender software helps companies find opportunities, understand requirements, and prepare stronger bids with far less administrative effort.
The round was led by Keen Venture Partners and brings Cato’s total funding to €7.6 million. Existing investors also returned, while several founders joined as angels after watching Cato’s early traction in Italy. The funding gives Cato fresh resources to improve its platform, expand commercially, and grow beyond its current customer base.
Public procurement represents one of Europe’s largest business markets, yet suppliers still handle many processes with outdated tools. More than 250,000 public authorities spend around €2.5 trillion annually across services, works, supplies, healthcare, transport, and infrastructure. That scale creates an enormous opportunity for AI tender software capable of reducing repetitive work before companies submit bids.
Italy may be the perfect place to test whether that promise works under unusually demanding conditions. Public tenders reached €309.7 billion during 2025, increasing 13.9 percent compared with the previous year. Thousands of contracting authorities operate across different systems, while suppliers often navigate lengthy documents, fragmented portals, and detailed eligibility rules.
Cato is building its advantage around that complexity instead of trying to avoid it during early expansion. The platform gathers tender opportunities from more than 25,000 sources and brings them into one searchable environment. Its AI tender software can also extract deadlines, requirements, evaluation criteria, and other information buried throughout complicated tender documents.
That automation matters because finding a tender is only the beginning of the work required to compete. Businesses must still verify eligibility, understand technical conditions, gather supporting documents, and prepare submissions matching every stated requirement. Cato reduces that workload by analysing tender documents and preparing sections using information already supplied by each customer.
Every generated claim can also be traced back to its original source, giving companies more control during review. That feature is particularly important when mistakes can disqualify otherwise competitive bids before evaluators consider pricing or technical quality. AI tender software becomes more valuable when it improves speed without forcing companies to sacrifice accountability or document accuracy.
The company was founded during 2025 by Andrea Zorzetto and Matteo Bossolini after Zorzetto closed his previous startup. Their first version reportedly took only one week to build before they began testing demand from potential customers. Cato secured its first paying customer shortly afterward and completed a €1.6 million pre-seed round by December.
That quick start matters because procurement software succeeds only when businesses repeatedly trust it with complicated, revenue-sensitive processes. Cato says customers now use its platform across medical devices, construction, information technology, services, and other industries. The company has already processed thousands of tenders, giving its AI tender software more exposure to real procurement workflows.
Competition will become harder as Cato grows because other European startups are attacking similar public-sector sales problems. Britain’s Stotles and Dutch company Altura have already raised larger funding rounds for procurement and bid-management software. However, neither started specifically around Italy’s fragmented procurement environment, which Cato believes can strengthen its defensive position.
Starting inside a difficult market creates an interesting strategic possibility if Cato can make the technology work reliably. Software trained around complicated workflows may adapt more easily when entering countries with simpler procurement structures later. That could turn Italy’s administrative burden into a proving ground for AI tender software designed for wider European expansion.
Cato already plans to support multinational customers seeking help with tenders outside Italy as demand grows internationally. The company will also expand into additional sectors while strengthening sales, product development, and specialist public-sector expertise internally. Luisa Gamba is joining from Amazon Business, where she previously led public-sector partnerships across the Italian market.
The timing also benefits from stronger momentum across Italy’s technology sector following several years of uneven venture investment. Italian startups raised €813 million across 145 rounds during the first half of 2026, with artificial intelligence leading activity. Cato’s financing suggests international investors are becoming more willing to back Italian companies addressing large traditional industries.
Still, the bigger opportunity extends far beyond another successful funding round for a young Milan technology company. Public procurement remains difficult for smaller suppliers that lack dedicated teams to track opportunities and prepare complex submissions. AI tender software could lower those barriers by giving smaller businesses capabilities previously requiring larger procurement departments or outside advisers.
That shift could also increase competition for government contracts by allowing more qualified companies to participate efficiently. Better supplier participation can give public authorities broader choices while helping businesses access customers they previously considered unreachable. Cato therefore sits between commercial automation and a wider effort to modernise how companies compete for public spending.
The €6 million round now gives Cato time to prove whether its Italian advantage travels successfully across borders. Winning in Europe’s complicated procurement markets will require local knowledge, regulatory understanding, and consistently reliable artificial intelligence outputs. If Cato succeeds, Italy’s tender maze may become the foundation that helped its AI tender software scale internationally.
