Milan-based Cato raises €6 million for its AI public tender platform

Founded in 2025 by Andrea Zorzetto and Matteo Bossolini, Cato describes itself as Italy's first AI-native platform focused on public procurement. Its platform supports companies across the tender process, from spotting opportunities to reviewing requirements and preparing bids, while leaving the final submission in the customer's hands. According to Tech.eu, the platform monitors more than 27,000 sources in real time and ranks tenders by their relevance to individual companies, using AI to extract requirements and evaluation criteria and to flag possible contradictions between documents.

The company frames the opportunity around the scale of government spending. Public procurement accounts for roughly 14 percent of EU GDP, or about €2.5 trillion a year, across more than 250,000 contracting authorities. In Italy, public tenders were worth €309 billion in 2025, according to figures from ANAC cited by Tech.eu.

AI Startups Draw Fresh Funding Across US and Europe for Finance, Fashion and Construction

Hyphenate, Artiso and Bedrock Robotics each closed new rounds in October 2026, applying AI agents and automation to finance, fashion design and heavy construction equipment.