With an ageing population and overcrowded emergency rooms, Italian startup Niino uses AI to manage healthcare mobility.
For many Italians, a simple hospital visit can turn into an obstacle course. In a country ageing at a vertiginous pace – with the over-65 population approaching 25 per cent and 2.9 million citizens with severe disabilities, many of them housebound due to mobility problems – non-emergency medical transport has for decades been a chaotic sector: thousands of scattered operators, bureaucratic bookings, underused fleets, needless emissions. Then along comes Niino, an Italian startup part of the LifeGate Way ecosystem, which takes the classic "ni-no ni-no" sound of the Italian siren and transforms it into an innovative and reliable healthcare platform.
Niino is Italy's first AI-first digital platform dedicated to Nemt (non-emergency medical transportation): no sirens, but ambulances, wheelchair-accessible minibuses or medical cars to take elderly people, disabled individuals, chronic patients or those in rehabilitation from home to hospital and back. All in a few clicks or a WhatsApp chat: enter the date, time and destination, instantly see the transparent price, and after confirmation track the journey in real time with automatic notifications. No mandatory medical prescription, 24/7 service, card payment. The providers? Only authorised and qualified partners, coordinated by an algorithm that aggregates demand and assigns the most efficient ride.
The goals are remarkable: fewer empty kilometres, better vehicle utilisation, reduced waiting times. In a fragmented market worth over 400 million euros, the asset-light model – Niino owns no fleets – creates a widespread network of carriers, optimising logistics and fiscal flows. And the environment benefits: rationalised routes mean less fuel burned and less CO2 released into the atmosphere, given that the transport sector alone accounts for over 25 per cent of national greenhouse gas emissions.
The system analyses in real time the type of vehicle required, the position of carriers and traffic conditions, drastically reducing empty journeys and environmental impact. This optimisation transforms logistics into an operational advantage for healthcare facilities: digitising transport means eliminating bureaucratic bottlenecks in hospital discharge procedures, enabling smoother bed management across the entire national system.
With emergency rooms in constant crisis – Agenas 2024 data report 31 average pre-admission hours, white-code patients waiting 164 minutes, green-code 229, yellow-code over 400 – many inappropriate visits stem precisely from the difficulty of moving vulnerable people for routine appointments, dialysis or therapies. Niino deflates this pressure, freeing up healthcare resources and reducing stress on families and caregivers.
Operational in regions such as Campania, Lombardia and Lazio, with national expansion under way, Niino has an ambitious roadmap: full-stack for private patients (B2C), healthcare facilities (B2B) and public administrations (B2G). An approach that looks to the demographic future – by 2050 the over-65s will account for 34.6 per cent – and to urban sustainability. Beyond the numbers and technological efficiency, Niino's impact is also measured in the relief it offers family caregivers. In Italy, thousands of people are forced to navigate uncertainty in order to coordinate transport for a relative, often sacrificing hours of work and peace of mind. Delegating logistics to an intelligent platform means giving families breathing space, safe in the knowledge that their loved one is being cared for by professionals.
Alessandro Monterosso, co-founder of Niino alongside Ferdinando Lanzillo and Ferdinando Iacuaniello, explains: "This is the beginning of a concrete transformation for thousands of people who every day need to travel to receive care, often in silence, often with great difficulty. From today, a new model of access, dignity, simplicity and technology comes into action. Niino was born to connect patients, caregivers, clinics, carriers and institutions in a digital, empathetic, traceable and reliable ecosystem."
Niino is one of ten startups selected for the Human+AI programme run by SmartCityLab Milano, the incubator dedicated to smart and sustainable cities, established through a collaboration between the Municipality of Milano, Invitalia and the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy. Launched in 2025 with a call that rewarded creativity, innovation and social impact, Human+AI accelerates projects that integrate artificial intelligence and human ethics to make cities more inclusive. Niino earned its place: it optimises healthcare mobility, reduces the ecological footprint and restores autonomy to vulnerable people. The result is medical mobility that leaves no one behind: a system capable of optimising routes, reducing waste and pollution as a natural consequence of a job well done.
