Italian Startup NANDO Raises €3.3M To Boost AI-Powered Waste Management

The company plans to expand its AI technologies and enhance data collection and analytics across the entire waste management value chain.

The round was led by MAIA Ventures (Praesidium SA) through the Maia I fund, which participates in the EIF InvestEU Fund programme, and CDP Venture Capital via the Accelerators Fund. Additional participants included the Piemonte Next Fund, backed by FinPiemonte, as well as existing investors Club degli Investitori, La4G, and EMBA Capital Partners.

Founded in 2021 by Riccardo Leonardi, Fabrizio Custorella, Giovanni Lucifora, Federico Fedi and Simone Cavariani, NANDO (formerly Re Learn) develops AI-driven solutions for waste monitoring. The platform combines AI, machine learning, and computer vision to provide real-time, high-granularity insights across municipal, industrial, and food waste streams.

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Accelerated by ZERO, a CleanTech program within CDP Venture Capital’s National Accelerator Network, with ENI as the main corporate partner, NANDO processes over 40,000 waste images daily worldwide, serving 80+ clients including ISS, Narita International Airport, A2A, IREN, Deloitte, Capgemini and CBRE.

By digitalising and automating waste monitoring, NANDO helps organisations optimise operations, reduce costs, and minimise environmental impact. Its unified platform consolidates multiple waste types into a single dashboard, with a dedicated unit focusing on reducing food waste in the catering sector.

The new funding will support NANDO’s expansion in Europe, the UK, the US, and Asia, as well as team growth and development of new product lines, enabling data-driven waste reduction and operational optimisation across the entire supply chain.

Riccardo Leonardi, CEO and Co-founder of NANDO, comments: “Over the past few years, we have strengthened our position in the waste management landscape, serving around 80 clients across more than 17 countries and partnering with major global players.

“With this new round, we aim to seize the unique market opportunity in the waste sector. Rising labor and raw material costs coupled with workforce shortages, have made waste measurement increasingly crucial for optimizing operations across companies and municipalities. This challenge is particularly pressing in the food service sector, where our recently launched solution has received strong market interest. The capital raised will allow us to further develop our technology and consolidate NANDO’s position as the single point of access for waste data.”position as the single point of access for waste data.”