Wearable Robotics raises €5 million Series A to scale neuromotor rehabilitation globally

The global rehabilitation robotics sector is experiencing a period of sustained clinical validation and commercial maturation. Driven by an ageing European population, rising incidence of stroke and neurological conditions, and growing demand for technology-assisted recovery pathways, the market for wearable robotic rehabilitation devices is expanding well beyond its academic origins. Institutional investors and hospital procurement networks are increasingly willing to back companies that can demonstrate clinical efficacy at scale — and Italy’s Wearable Robotics, a spin-off of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, is among the clearest examples of that trajectory. The company has closed a €5 million Series A funding round to accelerate its international expansion, building on a decade of research and a commercially validated product already deployed across 20 countries.

The round was led by CDP Venture Capital through its Accelerators Fund, with participation from MITO Technology via the MITO Tech Transfer fund, LIFTT, and SIMEST — drawing on resources from Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation through the F.394/81 Venture Capital and Participatory Investments Section. Additional co-investors include RoboIT and Toscana Next, a co-investment fund managed by CDP Venture Capital and backed by Tuscany’s principal banking foundations. The breadth of the investor syndicate reflects both the national strategic significance of the technology and the depth of conviction among Wearable Robotics’ existing backers.

CDP Venture Capital and a nationally strategic investment thesis

The involvement of CDP Venture Capital — Italy’s most prominent institutional technology investor — in leading the round is a meaningful signal about the company’s standing within the national innovation ecosystem. CDP has in recent years channelled significant capital into robotics and deep technology platforms, targeting companies that combine university-grade research credentials with demonstrated commercial traction. Wearable Robotics meets both criteria.

Founded in 2014 as a spin-off of the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, the company has spent more than a decade developing its flagship product: ALEX RS, a bilateral wearable device for the neuromotor rehabilitation of the upper limb. The system integrates robotics with augmented and virtual reality components, guiding patients through structured rehabilitation exercises designed to support recovery of Activities of Daily Living following stroke and other neurological events. More than 50 ALEX RS units are currently installed in clinical hospitals and rehabilitation centres across 20 countries — an international footprint that is uncommon for a specialist medtech company at this stage of its development.

Stefano Molino, Managing Partner at CDP Venture Capital, described the company’s results with ALEX RS as “testament to the team’s executive maturity,” and characterised Wearable Robotics as competing as an industry leader in rehabilitation robotics. Marco Parlani of LIFTT, a longstanding investor in the company, expressed continued conviction in “a team and technology positioned as leaders in rehabilitation robotics.” Lucia Lencioni, CEO of Wearable Robotics, framed the funding round in terms of building durable commercial foundations: “We are building the foundation for sustainable and scalable growth, while investing in product innovation.”

North America, regulatory expansion, and a broadened product portfolio

The Series A proceeds are earmarked for a set of parallel strategic priorities: completion of the product portfolio beyond the upper-limb ALEX RS into additional rehabilitation modalities; regulatory approvals for new markets; strengthening national and international distribution networks; and a targeted commercial push into North America — a market with both significant clinical demand for advanced rehabilitation technology and the institutional purchasing power to deploy it at scale. SIMEST’s participation, channelled through Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is directly tied to supporting that international expansion.

Wearable Robotics holds a family of eight proprietary patents covering the company’s core technical know-how across kinematics, sensors, actuation systems, and exoskeleton architecture. That intellectual property base, combined with the clinical validation represented by 50-plus deployed units, provides a defensible foundation for the product range expansion the company is now pursuing.

The Italian medtech sector is increasingly well-supported by institutional frameworks that bridge the gap between research spin-offs and commercial maturity — a gap that has historically constrained the internationalisation of Italian deep tech companies. Wearable Robotics, with this Series A, appears well positioned to demonstrate what that combination of research depth, clinical validation, and institutional investment can produce.