Tuidi Lands €3M to Cut Waste and Boost Efficiency in Italy’s Grocery Industry

Courtesy: Tuidi

Putignano-based startup Tuidi has closed a €3 million Seed round, marking a milestone for Italy’s fast-evolving FoodTech and RetailTech ecosystem. The company, founded in 2021 by Giulio Martinacci and Vincenzo Morelli, is developing a proprietary machine learning platform that helps large-scale retailers automate store operations, from procurement to pricing and staff scheduling.

The investment round attracted a strong lineup of institutional backers, including Vertis SGR, which participated through its Vertis Venture 6 Digital Sud fund, partially financed by the European Union’s Next Generation EU program, and Vertis Venture 7 Digital Puglia. Azimut also joined through multiple funds managed by Azimut Libera Impresa SGR, namely Azimut ELTIF, Venture Capital ALIcrowd III and IV, and Azimut Digital Equity Italy. Strategic participation came from QBerg, a market research and price intelligence firm that will support Tuidi’s expansion as both an investor and partner.

“Food is one of Italy’s most iconic and globally recognised industries,” say co-founders Martinacci and Morelli. “Our goal is to make it a model of technological innovation as well, a country where FoodTech is not just a future promise, but a real driver of competitiveness, sustainability, and quality for both consumers and retailers.”

At the heart of Tuidi’s technology is Delphi, an AI-powered “store controller” that acts as the operational brain of supermarkets. Delphi analyzes millions of data points to deliver daily recommendations on assortment management, sell-out pricing, procurement, and staffing. “The heart of our solution lies in our proprietary machine learning models,” explains Morelli. “They combine internal and external variables to anticipate consumer behaviours and optimise operations.”

The results are already tangible. Retailers using Tuidi’s platform, among them Conad Centro Nord, Maiora, Retail Pro, Ama Crai Est, and Gruppo Romano, have reported sales increases of up to 2% and order cost reductions of around 10%. In total, more than 620 million products are now managed through Delphi, with measurable reductions in waste and significant improvements in operational efficiency.

Italy’s grocery retail sector, worth €135 billion in 2024 and representing nearly 6% of national GDP, remains burdened by inefficiencies in data use and decision-making. Tuidi’s founders see this as both a challenge and an opportunity—one that machine learning and AI can finally address at scale.

The company’s model reflects a growing European momentum toward retail automation. Switzerland’s Zenline AI recently closed a €1.3 million round to advance AI-driven assortment tools, while Germany’s 7Learnings raised €10 million to expand its retail intelligence platform. Tuidi, however, distinguishes itself through its strong focus on the operational realities of grocery management, bridging the gap between data science and day-to-day store efficiency.

“The value of innovation is something consumers experience directly,” notes Giacomo Giurazza, Partner at Vertis SGR. “When you go to a supermarket and see empty shelves or inconsistent pricing, you’re seeing problems that technology like Tuidi’s can solve. We’re backing them because they’re turning those frustrations into opportunities for progress.”

From QBerg’s perspective, the investment represents a broader commitment to the digital transformation of retail. “Our participation is not just financial, it’s strategic,” adds Fabrizio Pavone, Founder and CEO of QBerg. “Tuidi’s technology convinced us to join forces. We believe their work can reshape the retail landscape and help usher in a more efficient, data-driven future for the industry.”

As European retailers race to meet efficiency, cost, and sustainability goals, Tuidi’s AI-driven model hints at how technology could become a crucial ally not only in improving margins but also in reducing food waste, optimising logistics, and minimising resource use. With this latest funding, the company plans to expand its engineering team, enhance Delphi with generative AI and intelligent agents, and consolidate its position as one of Europe’s most promising players in applied AI for food retail.

For Italy’s grocery sector, long defined by tradition and fragmentation, Tuidi’s rise signals a new chapter, one where technology, sustainability, and profitability finally align on the same shelf.