Founded in 2024 based on an idea by three young entrepreneurs, Ciro Borrelli, Carlo Vespa, and Saverio Salaris (pictured), Bandosubito announces that it has closed a €2 million funding round, raised with the support of Zest thanks to the participation of its joint ventures, OpenT, created in collaboration with Tinexta; Apside, launched together with Intesa Sanpaolo, and the Fin+Tech accelerator of CDP Venture Capital’s National Accelerator Network dedicated to fintech and insurtech.
Private investors also participated in the round, including Andrea Piol, who are helping to support the Turin-based start-up in innovating the way companies access public tenders and grants.
Internal analyses by Bandosubito reveal that only a small percentage of Italian companies actually manage to obtain grants, not due to a lack of funds, but because of bureaucratic complexities, excessive fragmentation of sources and information barriers. In fact, as shown by Unioncamere’s analysis, in 2024, only 5.21% of Italian companies obtained public funding through calls for proposals. This means that approximately 19 out of 20 companies were excluded, despite the availability of funds at European, national and regional level.
“When we spoke with our customers—small and medium-sized businesses, professional firms, and subsidised finance consultants—we realised that the time spent searching for calls for proposals, reading regulations, and filling out various forms is often greater than the time needed to prepare the application,” explains Borrelli, CEO of the start-up, in a statement.
To address these challenges, the platform uses artificial intelligence to monitor over 30 European, national, regional and municipal public sources every day, cross-reference data from registered companies, automatically verify pre-feasibility, suggest the necessary documentation, and guide professionals through the application process.
The funds raised in this round will be used to expand the team, hiring new professionals to strengthen the company’s technical and operational skills; develop advanced features for comprehensive reporting management, automating the monitoring and reporting processes required by public tenders; and aim to internationalise the service, bringing the platform to other European countries where SMEs face similar challenges in accessing public funds, starting with key markets such as Spain, France and Germany.
“Bandosubito was created to bring real innovation to the subsidised finance sector. The 2025 Budget Law introduced fundamental measures for SMEs, with an allocation of approximately €30 billion to support the Italian production system, but a profound transformation is needed to sustain the competitiveness of businesses in the long term,” says Gabriele Ronchini, CEO of Zest Investments. “Thanks to AI-based technology, Bandosubito makes processes simpler, faster and more efficient, delivering reliable results. The team of young founders has demonstrated commitment and competence from the outset, and we are confident that they will achieve their goals.”
Bandosubito is already a partner of the Il Sole 24 Ore network, collaborates with accounting firms and consultants throughout Italy, and has obtained funding from the Piedmont Region for pilot projects worth a total of €800,000. Thanks to the new capital, the company plans to double its number of professional clients within the next year and launch new features that will facilitate access to tenders for SMEs and associations, groups that are often penalised.
“Our goal is to democratise access to public funds for businesses to invest in innovation, employment and development. AI and process automation can streamline bureaucracy and facilitate access to resources,” adds Borrelli. “With this round of investment, Bandosubito aims to become the Italian benchmark for AI-supported subsidised finance, making the path to public funding more transparent, faster and more accessible.”
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