Cato raises €6M to scale its AI-powered public tender platform
Italian AI company Cato has raised €6 million in seed funding to expand its AI-powered platform that helps businesses identify, analyse and compete for public tenders. The round was led by Keen Venture Partners, with participation from existing investors Vento, Heartfelt, Moonstone, BHeroes, Alecla7 and Nova Venture, as well as angel investors including the founders of Lexroom, Sibill and Pillar.
The latest investment follows a pre-seed round led by Italian Founders Fund and brings Cato’s total funding to €7.6 million.
Cato has developed an AI platform that supports businesses throughout the public tender process, from discovering relevant opportunities and analysing requirements to preparing bids. Public procurement represents around 14% of EU GDP, equivalent to approximately €2.5 trillion annually across more than 250,000 contracting authorities. In Italy, public tenders were valued at €309 billion in 2025, according to ANAC.
Companies competing for public contracts often need to review large volumes of tender notices, analyse lengthy documents, verify eligibility requirements and prepare detailed administrative and technical bids. Cato aims to automate much of this work while allowing customers to retain control over the final submission.
The platform monitors more than 27,000 sources in real time and ranks available tenders according to their relevance to each business. Its AI analyses tender documents to identify requirements and evaluation criteria, flags potential inconsistencies between documents and pre-fills administrative and technical bid materials using customer-provided information. Content generated by the platform is also linked to its original sources for verification.
Within six months of its launch, Cato says it has processed thousands of tenders for customers across Italy, ranging from SMEs to large companies operating in sectors such as medical devices, construction, IT and professional services.
In this first phase we have already managed thousands of tenders. Our greatest satisfaction is hearing from our clients that they see our technology as a true ally: it helps them find the most suitable public tenders, understand the requirements and prepare their bid, increasing their chances of winning and growing,
said Andrea Zorzetto, CEO and co-founder of Cato.
Cato will use the funding to further develop its platform, strengthen its commercial operations and expand its team. The company also plans to enter additional sectors and help its multinational customers manage tender processes beyond Italy as it begins its international expansion.