Endostart, a Certaldo (Florence, Tuscany – Italy)-based startup aiming at reducing endoscopic procedures’ complexity, raised €1m seed financing.
The round was led by Panakès Partners with participation from Estor, A11 Venture and business angels.
The company intends to use the funds to develop an entire new family of devices based on ferrofluid and magnetic fields.
Endostart is advancing Endorail, an endoscopic magnetic guidewire able to guide a colonoscope along the colon, avoiding incomplete colonoscopies.
Endorail is composed by a balloon guidewire, a ferrofluid prefilled syringe and an external magnet. This technology is also supposed to reduce the procedural time of most colonoscopies while potentially reducing patient pain and discomfort as well as healthcare related costs.
The founding team of Endostart is composed by Alessandro Tozzi MD, specialist in Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Digestive endoscopy, who resigned from his previous position as medical director at “Nuovo Ospedale San Giuseppe, Empoli” to commit to Endostart development and serve as CEO to the company, and Alberto Bruni, president of Special Electronic Design Srl, who provides extensive experience in business administration and finance.
Panakès investment allows the founding team to be supported by a number of advisors with relevant experience:
- Lukas Guenther (former Investment Director, Wellington Partner),
- Oliver Hofmann (former Senior Investment Manager, Inventages Ventures) and
- Barbara Castellano (Principal, Panakès Partners) will serve as non-executive directors, while
- Diana Saraceni (co-founder and General Partner at Panakès Partners) will be Chairman.
FinSMEs
20/12/2018