Matteo Agostini, co-founder of the startup spin-off from Pisa’s Scuola Normale Superiore and the CNR-NANO, says he’s now focusing on medical certification and commercial development. So far, he’s raised $3.5 million from Eureka!, A11 Venture, LIFTT, and Deep Blue Ventures. He’s now looking to new investors to accelerate growth.
Article published in BeBeez Magazine no. 34 of July 31, 2025
by Stefania Peveraro
The first product from INTA, an Italian startup developing portable diagnostic products and the first joint spin-off of the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa and the National Research Council Nanoscience Institute of Pisa (CNR-NANO), is ready for commercialization. The time has therefore come for the startup, founded in 2020 and supported since then by various venture capital investors, to enter the market. In recent weeks, the startup has opened a new round to support its next phase of development. Matteo Agostini, ceo and co-founder of INTA Systems, spoke about this to BeBeez Live, BeBeez’s Italian web TV channel, also adding a few other “tidbits” in the video interview.
Question: INTA develops portable diagnostic devices and you are bringing your first product to market. Can you explain what it is and what its highly innovative feature is?
Answer. The product is called NanoAnalyzer (see the product video here, ed.) and is a portable, transportable instrument that allows the analysis of liquids for certain biological substances. Our main application is in the medical sector and concerns the diagnosis of brain trauma through blood tests. Therefore, thanks to this instrument and this disposable cartridge, it is possible to detect up to six markers of brain damage in the patient’s peripheral blood and therefore determine their health status. In the case of brain trauma, we are responding to a medical need due to the overuse and overcrowding of CT scans and the patient’s need for data in a much faster, less invasive, and low-cost manner. We do not yet have authorization for this type of medical application for use on patients, but it is already possible for research purposes. Furthermore, beyond the medical sector, the product can also be used in more industrial sectors or those related to environmental monitoring, where such an instrument can measure the presence of contaminants, such as bacteria, allergens, and toxins, always in liquids.
Q. So there are many applications, and it’s reasonable to assume that this was also what attracted investors. Let’s quickly retrace the company’s history. When and how did you found it with your partners?
A. I founded INTA in 2020 together with Marco Cecchini and Marco Calderisi. Cecchini was my doctoral supervisor; he is currently a research director at the CNR Nanoscience Institute, where I completed my PhD within the NEST Laboratory. He has over 15 years of research in the field of micro- and nanostructures applied to sensors, and beyond. Calderisi, on the other hand, is a data science entrepreneur who participated in one of the first projects and then developed the technology underlying the NanoAnalyzer. He contributed significantly to the creation of this tool, which is why the three of us decided to found the company together in 2020.
Q. Since then, you’ve been seeking capital to finance your project. The last one announced was €2 million in October 2023. How did it go? How confident were you right from the start, and how much did it take? And what are the next steps?
A. It was certainly a very challenging journey because I came from the research world, and entering the entrepreneurial world, linked to investments in the deep tech sector, was a quantum leap. So, after learning a different language and processes from the sector I came from, we managed to raise capital after a search that lasted just under a year from the company’s founding in March 2021. Eureka! Fund I – Technology Transfer, managed by Eureka! Venture sgr, and A11 Venture srl (see here a previous article by BeBeez, ed.), participated in that €350k pre-seed round. With this initial capital, we created a first prototype, what I would call a pre-industrial one, or at least a first version of this tool, which is currently much more complex. That round allowed us to carry out the first field validations. We then closed a €200k bridge round in December 2022, again entirely subscribed by Eureka! Venture and A11 Venture. Finally, in October 2023, we closed another capital increase, this time for €2 million. The round was again led by Eureka! Ventures, but in this case we also saw the entry of two other very important Italian investors, who are LIFTT and Deep Ocean Capital sgr, through its Deep Blue Ventures fund (see here a previous article by BeBeez, ed.). There was also a €1 million bridge round a few months ago, which we had not previously announced. With this capital, we achieved our first major goal, which was the release of our first product on the market, which will happen in July. Now, for the next development phase, we need further support, and in fact, we have opened a new round of €4 million.
Q. What will these additional €4 million be used for?
A. First of all, to obtain the ISO13485 certification, which is required to operate in the medical devices sector, and then to begin clinical trials. They will also be used to support the commercial development that we will be able to conduct in the meantime, both in terms of medical research and industrial development. For example, we are already working with a water treatment company in Spain and with an Italian company that deals with quality testing in the food sector, while in the meantime, we are conducting the first research trials for an Italian medical center
