Istion is a venture company dedicated to support startups and innovative companies from 0 to 1 in the Life Sciences and Healthcare sectors, focusing on the field of cancer treatment and diagnosis, which are aimed to create real value and positive impact for stakeholders.
Istion is a new form of seed investor: neither an incubator, an accelerator, a business angel nor venture capital or equity fund, Istion combines an investor-operator model with strategic management expertise.
Istion guides new or potential founders facing the challenges and issues of the seed-early stage in order to create all necessary conditions and opportunities to increase the success rate of the new venture and startups.
The Istion Team
The Istion management team is formed by people with diverse backgrounds and competences, united by their passion and experience in the Healthcare and Life Sciences sectors, and their aim is to create added value and a positive impact by connecting Science and Business and build a positive environment for startups and innovative companies.
Pietro Presti, MBA, PhD
Founder & Managing Partner
Field of expertise: Business Strategy and Development, Innovation, Leadership and Fundraising.
Bio
Dynamic, creative and goal-oriented senior manager with a broad experience in business strategy and development, leadership and innovation in Healthcare and Life Sciences sectors. Substantial experience both as a consultant and manager in medical technology start-ups and academic spin-offs.
Board member of several organizations operating in cancer advocacy, education, innovation and research in Healthcare and Life Sciences, especially in the field of cancer care continuum.
Innovation Manager and speaker at several international and national conferences.
Master’s Degree in Law, PhD in Business and Management (University of Turin, Italy) and MBA (University of Geneva, Switzerland).
Alberto Bert, PhD
Founder & PARTNER
Field of expertise: R&D Management, IP Strategy, Clinical Validation, Business Strategy, Artificial Intelligence, Medical Imaging.
Bio
Entrepreneur and innovation manager with a deep experience in R&D in MedTech and biotech sector, with a focus on innovation, applied research and technology transfer.
Expert in medical imaging research as PhD in Chemistry at the University of Torino, Postdoc at UCLA and Adjunct Professor teaching Image and Signal Analysis at the University of Turin, School of Biotechnologies.
Chief Science Officer of a MedTech start-up, managing a research team who developed, patented, and validated numerous AI algorithms for cancer diagnosis.
Innovation Manager qualified by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development.
Owner of a consulting company in innovation management since 2014, starting his experience as funding partner in start-ups.
Carlo Leva
Founder & Partner
Field of expertise: Business Strategy, Finance, Investment, Accounting.
Bio
Senior financial manager with more than two decades of experience in corporate finance, investments, bank relations, accounting supervision and team management.
Expert in start-ups and organization in MedTech and Healthcare, especially in the field of cancer, with a focus in fundraising, development and growth stages, with solid background over the years in start-up funding rounds from early stages onward.
Master’s degree in economics from USC Cattolica, Milan.
Marco Becchio, MEng
Founder & Partner
Field of expertise: Product Development, Regulatory, Business Strategy.
Bio
Senior technical manager and entrepreneur with an extensive experience in technology transfer, R&D, product development and software in Healthcare and Life Sciences sectors.
CTO of a medical start-up for 8 years, managing every aspect of the product development and the related software, CE Marking, ISO13485 quality system, hiring, production, technical assistance and customer training.
Cofounder of a company specialized in all-round innovation support to SME and start-ups.
Innovation Manager qualified by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development.
Degree in Computer Science Engineering at Polytechnic University of Turin.
Partnerships
Istion collaborates with institutional players and public and private investors to bring together science and business into successful and impactful entrepreneurial initiatives in the Healthcare and Life Sciences sectors.