The bill arrives. The waiter disappears. The card machine is nowhere in sight. For a restaurant in Brescia, Italy, this is now the point.
Qodeup, a five-year-old fintech, is betting its entire model on that moment of friction. Its product is a QR code. Customers scan it, see their itemized bill, split it, add a tip, and pay, all without downloading an app. The company calls it Q-pay, and it wants to make the physical card terminal obsolete for sit-down dining [homepage.qodeup.com, 2024]. The pitch is simple: zero wait at checkout, faster table turns, and a cheaper transaction fee than a traditional bank POS [F6S, 2024].
In April 2022, investors bought the first chapter of that story. Qodeup closed a €2.5 million (approximately $2.68 million) seed round. The round included participation from Italian firms Techshop Primo and FoodBrand [StartupReporter, April 2022][ilsole24ore.com, 2026].
The Wedge of No App
The global market for QR code payments is crowded, but Qodeup's differentiation is surgical. It avoids the two-step process of downloading a proprietary app or registering for a wallet.
- Speed as the core metric. The company claims the system saves over 15 minutes per table versus waiting for a card machine [F6S, 2024].
- Cost undercutting. Qodeup positions Q-pay as "cheaper than traditional banking POS machines" [F6S, 2024].
- Experience layer. Beyond payments, the platform is built to offer services like verified reviews and loyalty programs [Crunchbase, 2024].
Founders from Cosmetics and Code
The founding team pairs commercial hustle with technical build. CEO Fabio Marniga is a serial entrepreneur whose background includes founding Marny Cosmetics [ipresslive.it, 2026]. CTO Stefano Allegra, a software founder with a mechanical engineering degree and experience from Farco Group and GCS Software, handles the platform build [rocketreach.co, 2026].
| Founder | Title | Key Background |
|---|---|---|
| Fabio Marniga | CEO & Co-Founder | Serial entrepreneur; founder of Marny Cosmetics [ipresslive.it, 2026]. |
| Stefano Allegra | CTO & Co-Founder | Software founder; mechanical engineering degree; ex-Farco Group, GCS Software [rocketreach.co, 2026]. |
Timing the Italian Tourism Wave
Geography is not an accident for Qodeup. The company is headquartered in Brescia, in the Lombardy region of northern Italy. This area accounts for approximately 56% of overnight tourist stays in the country [linkedin.com/in/fabio-marniga-18aa63199/, 2026]. The looming catalyst is the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics in February 2026, an event expected to drive a global tourist surge and intensify demand for frictionless, cashless payment options [linkedin.com/in/fabio-marniga-18aa63199/, 2026].
The SumUp-Shaped Counterfactual
The risk for any payments startup is the depth of the incumbent moat. In Europe, SumUp and similar players like CloudWalk have massive salesforces, brand recognition, and extensive hardware ecosystems. Qodeup's answer is its focus: it is a specialized tool for the full-service restaurant experience.
What a Series A Would Need to Show
The €2.5 million seed from Techshop Primo and FoodBrand bought the build and the initial beachhead [StartupReporter, April 2022]. The next round, likely a Series A, would need to answer a harder question. Investors will want to see the model working at scale. That means metrics beyond restaurant count: average revenue per location, payment volume growth, and tangible proof that the loyalty and review services are being used.
Fabio Marniga's trip to San Francisco hints at the fundraising roadmap. Closing a transatlantic round would signal that Qodeup's story resonates beyond its home market.