{"id":16680,"date":"2026-05-04T10:37:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T07:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teaduspark.ee\/?p=16680"},"modified":"2026-05-04T10:54:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T07:54:33","slug":"startup-story-eye2drive-x-nato-diana-estonian-accelerator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teaduspark.ee\/en\/startup-story-eye2drive-x-nato-diana-estonian-accelerator\/","title":{"rendered":"Startup story: Eye2Drive x NATO DIANA Estonian Accelerator"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Eye2Drive is a fabless semiconductor company based in Tuscany, Italy, that designs bio-inspired CMOS imaging sensors for the autonomous navigation market, which includes drones, robots, and driverless vehicles.<\/strong><\/p>

We sat down with Monica Vatteroni<\/span><\/span>, who founded the company as a spinoff from Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna<\/span><\/span>, leveraging her background in Electronic Engineering and a PhD in Physics. With over 20 years of experience in VLSI design for image sensors, she has led her team in developing patented technology that enables high-quality environmental perception, even in the most challenging lighting conditions.<\/p>

The idea grew from foundational research at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna<\/span><\/span>, where the team initially explored vision technology for biomedical applications. They later identified a stronger market fit in autonomous systems, where conventional sensors struggled with rapidly changing light conditions and digital artifacts such as LED flickering. This insight led to a strategic pivot toward commercializing their \u201cdigital eye\u201d technology for the fast-evolving mobility and defense sectors.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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What has been the biggest achievement or challenge so far?<\/h4>

Our biggest achievement to date has been securing a \u20ac1.5M funding round in late 2024, led by RoboIT, CDP Venture Capital, and Pariter Partners. Having these investors on board confirms our strategic focus on autonomous systems. One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced is navigating the lengthy development cycles and conservative nature of the automotive and defense industries, especially when introducing fundamentally new sensor architectures. However, obtaining international patents for our adaptive HDR technology has been a crucial victory in protecting our unique competitive position.<\/p>

What sets Eye2Drive apart from competitors?<\/h4>

Unlike conventional cameras that depend on external software for High Dynamic Range (HDR) processing, our sensors perform adaptive HDR natively at the hardware level, frame by frame. This bio-inspired approach mimics the human eye’s ability to instantly transition between extreme light and shadow, effectively eliminating motion ghosting and LED flickering. Additionally, our sensors are designed to be “AI-ready,” allowing algorithms to control sensor parameters in real time. This enhances the efficiency and reliability of environmental perception.<\/span><\/p>

Why did you choose the NATO DIANA accelerator?<\/h4>

The defense industry is shifting rapidly from traditional heavy machinery to unmanned, dual-use systems like drone swarms and autonomous logistics vehicles. Our technology is a strategic component for these applications, as it provides the robust vision required for navigation in unstructured or high-interference environments. Accelerators like NATO DIANA provide the essential bridge between deep-tech innovation and the rigorous qualification standards needed for modern defense platforms.<\/p>

Where do you see your startup in 12 months and where in 5 years?<\/h4>

In one year, we aim to have a pre-production version of our next-generation sensor undergoing rigorous validation through established strategic partnerships in the mobility sector. By the five-year mark, we envision Eye2Drive as a leading provider of high-performance vision subsystems, with our bio-inspired sensors integrated into a wide range of autonomous defense, logistics, and medical robotics systems.<\/p>

Who will be the next defense or dual-use unicorn?<\/h4>

While I cannot predict which specific company it will be, the next unicorn will likely emerge at the intersection of AI and hardware-level sensing. Companies that move beyond general-purpose components to deliver “natively intelligent” hardware and systems that address critical perception gaps, like ours, will dominate the development of scalable, cost-effective unmanned platforms that define the future of defense.<\/span><\/p>

Which publications and influencers in your field do you follow and would recommend to other aspiring entrepreneurs?<\/h4>

I highly recommend staying connected with academic research journals such as MDPI Sensors or IEEE Transactions, as many of the most disruptive hardware innovations originate in research settings. Professionally, I find insights from networks like Plug and Play and from industry leaders such as Sony and STMicroelectronics invaluable for understanding market trends and technical benchmarks. For deep-tech founders, publishing high-quality technical papers is essential to <\/span>building a defensible intellectual property foundation.<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

The NATO DIANA Estonian accelerator is implemented by Tehnopol Startup Incubator together with Sparkup Tartu Science Park.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eye2Drive is a fabless semiconductor company based in Tuscany, Italy, that designs bio-inspired CMOS imaging sensors for the autonomous navigation market, which includes drones, robots, and driverless vehicles. We sat down with Monica Vatteroni, who founded the company as a spinoff from Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, leveraging her background in Electronic Engineering and a PhD in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16681,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[193,240,242],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-nato-diana-estonian-accelerator","category-military"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teaduspark.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teaduspark.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teaduspark.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teaduspark.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teaduspark.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16680"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/teaduspark.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16696,"href":"https:\/\/teaduspark.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16680\/revisions\/16696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teaduspark.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teaduspark.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teaduspark.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teaduspark.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}