Every year in Italy, around 5 million non-urgent medical transport journeys are carried out, with this figure forecast to rise to over 10 million by 2030. People with reduced mobility, disabilities or specific medical needs need to travel to hospitals, diagnostic centres and rehabilitation facilities, or return home following a hospital stay. In most cases, booking these services involves phoning dozens of operators, comparing availability and quotes, and navigating procedures that are often fragmented and lack transparency.
Niino was founded to meet this need: a start-up that digitises non-urgent medical transport through a platform that brings together and coordinates specialist providers across Italy, making it easier, more efficient and more accessible to book assisted transport.
The company today announced a pre-seed funding round of €1.26 million, led by 40Jemz Ventures and backed by some of the leading entrepreneurs in the Italian tech ecosystem, including Michele Grazioli (Vedrai), Danila De Stefano (Unobravo), Massimiliano Squillace (Contents.com), Alessandro Braga, Francesco Zaccariello (eFarma/Zeta Holding) and Fabrizio Perrone (2Watch).
At the helm of the start-up is Alessandro Monterosso, a serial entrepreneur who, in 2021, oversaw the exit of PatchAI, a healthtech start-up specialising in the application of artificial intelligence to clinical research. Working alongside him are co-founders Ferdinando Iacuaniello (COO) – a nurse, journalist and founder of Nurse24.it – who oversees the operational development of the transport network, and Ferdinando Lanzillo, CTO with over ten years’ experience in developing solutions for digital healthcare and logistics (pictured).
Niino currently operates in the Italian non-emergency medical transport market, which – according to a press release issued by the company – is estimated to be worth over 500 million euros. This is a rapidly growing sector globally as well: according to various market analyses, the non-emergency medical transport sector is already worth several billion dollars and is set to continue expanding in the coming years. In 2024, the market was valued at approximately 9.3 billion dollars (source: Market Research Future) and is forecast to reach around 17.5 billion dollars by 2035, with an estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.5% from 2025 to 2031. The ageing population, the rise in chronic conditions and the need to make healthcare services more accessible are effectively driving demand for digital solutions for healthcare mobility.
And Italy, in particular, will need to prepare itself quickly, given that it is currently the country with the oldest population in the European Union: as at 1 January 2025, the number of people aged 65 and over had reached 14.8 million, accounting for 25.1 per cent of the population, whilst those aged 80 and over numbered over 4.6 million. This trend is set to accelerate in the coming years and is driving up demand for healthcare, care and support services (source: ISTAT).
Despite this, access to healthcare remains a critical issue for a significant proportion of the most vulnerable section of the population. According to the latest data from the Passi d’Argento surveillance programme run by the Italian National Institute of Health, in the two-year period 2023–2024, around three million people aged over 65 in Italy went without necessary medical appointments or diagnostic tests at least once; this figure rises to 23 per cent in southern Italy and reaches 40 per cent among those living in conditions of greater economic vulnerability. Among the main causes are long waiting lists, but also difficulties in accessing services and logistical obstacles linked to travelling to healthcare facilities.
Monterosso, having initially backed Niino as an investor, has decided to take over its operational management and relaunch the project with the aim of building the leading digital infrastructure for healthcare mobility in Italy and, in the long term, across Europe.
The idea stemmed from a personal experience: “Some time ago, I was discharged from A&E at four in the morning following a hospital admission. I couldn’t drive, I couldn’t take a normal taxi, and I found myself having to call various operators one by one to find someone who could take me home. At that moment, I realised that millions of people still face the same difficulty today and that an essential service had remained unchanged for twenty years,” says Monterosso, CEO of Niino. “With Niino, we want to make healthcare transport as simple as booking a trip or a chauffeur-driven car. “Behind every journey there is a person who needs assistance, punctuality and reliability. Technology can help ensure all of this, whilst at the same time improving the work of operators and the accessibility of the service.”
Through a national network of ambulances, medical vehicles and specially equipped vehicles, the platform enables users to obtain an instant quote, book transport online in under three minutes, receive updates on the journey’s status and manage documentation and payments digitally. For operators, meanwhile, niino optimises vehicle scheduling, reduces the number of kilometres travelled empty and simplifies administrative tasks.
The target market is vast and growing rapidly. In Europe, over 50 million non-urgent medical transport journeys are carried out each year, and a significant proportion of these services is paid for directly by the public. At the same time, an ageing population and the rise in chronic conditions are driving up demand for scheduled medical transport services. Despite its recent commercial launch, Niino has already achieved significant results. In just three months, it has recorded: over 2,000 registered users; more than 1,300 bookings; over 650 medical vehicles managed via the platform; and an established presence in Lombardy, Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna, Lazio, Campania, Apulia, Calabria and Sicily.
“We are always on the lookout for early-stage start-ups that are not afraid to tackle complex problems with a radically new approach. Non-emergency patient transport is a crucial sector, particularly in a demographic context where the average age continues to rise rapidly. “We have invested in Niino because we believe that the digitalisation of processes and today’s technological tools are the key to revitalising an entire sector, transforming an essential service into an efficient, accessible and people-centred experience,” comments David Erba, co-managing partner at 40Jemz Ventures.
The investment will enable Niino to expand across Italy, further extending its national network of operators, accelerate the development of the platform and develop new features based on optimisation algorithms and intelligent journey allocation, with the aim of transforming a sector that is still largely managed via telephone, email and manual processes.
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