Smartwage raises €2M pre-seed to turn Italy’s corporate welfare into a digital wallet

Every year, more than 20% of corporate welfare budgets in Italy go unspent. Not because companies don’t want to invest in their people, but because the system is too rigid. Employees can only access benefits through closed networks of affiliated providers, leaving significant value on the table and workers underserved. Palermo-based fintech Smartwage was built to fix exactly that, and has now closed a €2 million pre-seed round to accelerate the work.

What Smartwage actually does

Smartwage transforms corporate welfare from a closed, static system of agreements into a flexible digital wallet. The platform verifies and authorises employees’ welfare spending in real time, allowing them to spend at any provider offering services permitted by law — not just those pre-approved by their employer. It also proactively suggests refunds by linking to each user’s bank account and centralises budget management for companies.

The technology layer combines regulated digital payment instruments — cards and bank transfers — with an AI-powered “welfare coach” that supports both employees and employers. The AI recognises eligible expenses automatically, reduces manual intervention, and helps maximise the actual impact of welfare budgets. As CTO Felice Cupane put it: “We designed Smartwage as a scalable technological infrastructure, capable of integrating regulated payments and artificial intelligence into a single coherent system. Our goal is to reduce regulatory complexity through automation, data analysis and continuous model optimisation.”

The business model is SaaS with a modular subscription structure — designed to be accessible to small and medium enterprises, not just large corporates. This is a deliberate positioning choice: the majority of Italian companies are SMEs, and traditional welfare platforms have largely ignored them.

The market opportunity

Corporate welfare in Italy is worth over €7 billion annually across benefits and meal vouchers, yet still reaches fewer than half of all employees. The European market is estimated at €80 billion — around a third of the global total. Meanwhile, 62% of Italian workers report struggling to make ends meet, and productivity data show that companies implementing structured welfare programmes see meaningful gains in both output and revenue per employee. The paradox is stark: the tools exist, the tax incentives are in place, but the infrastructure to deliver benefits flexibly does not.

The team

Smartwage was founded in 2024 by three co-founders who previously built a company together. CEO Marco Gambardella founded Plurima, a company in which CTO Felice Cupane and COO Francesco Varuzza also served on the board, before the company was acquired by Italiana Assicurazioni in 2023. That shared exit history is a meaningful signal: the team knows how to build, scale, and close.

The broader founding group includes Lorenzo Ait and Delia di Bona as advisors and early participants, who are actively supporting commercial development, strategy and fundraising. Early investor shareholders include Lamberto Cesari and Antonio Licata di Baucina. The technical team includes five developers.

Marco Gambardella has been clear about the social dimension of the mission: “The project was created with the aim of reducing inequalities and making welfare a right accessible to all companies and workers, starting with micro and small enterprises, which are often excluded from traditional solutions.”

The round

The €2 million pre-seed round is led by Step Fund, the venture capital fund managed by Alternative Capital Partners SGR, focused on seed-stage investments in high-tech Italian startups. The fund is managed by Michele Novelli, Roberto Montandon, Gennaro Tesone, and Maria Imbesi — a team with over 100 deals completed in Italy and abroad, and more than 15 exits to their credit. This is Step Fund’s second investment in its first quarter of activity since launching the vehicle.

The capital is structured in tranches: €1 million upfront, with an additional €1 million committed based on Smartwage’s development milestones. Smartwage is also supported by Zest, a leading Italian pre-seed and open-innovation operator, through a strategic service agreement that covers governance, financial planning, and investor network development.

The round will be used to accelerate platform development, strengthen the go-to-market approach, and enhance the AI models through continuous training and optimisation.

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