In an endovascular procedure, a doctor threads catheters and wires through the arteries under continuous X-ray, standing next to the patient. For stroke, where every minute counts, it also means a specialist has to be physically there. Sentante, the product of the Lithuanian company UAB Inovatyvi Medicina, founded in Kaunas in 2017, is a robot that moves standard catheters and guidewires at the bedside while the doctor controls it from a remote workstation, with haptic feedback.
The European Innovation Council granted €2,491,365.63 towards a €3.56 million project, and the EIC Fund joined a €6 million seed round in 2023. The project took the robot through animal studies to a first trial in humans. In May 2026 Sentante won its CE mark. The goal that makes it most interesting, treating stroke patients remotely, has not yet reached a clinical trial.
Company file
- Legal entity
- UAB Inovatyvi Medicina, Lithuania
- Brand
- Sentante
- Founded
- 2017, Kaunas
- Co-founders
- Edvardas Satkauskas (CEO), Tomas Baltrūnas (CMO)
- Regulatory
- CE mark (May 2026); FDA Breakthrough Device designation (2025)
- Investors
- Practica Capital (lead), EIC Fund
- EIC project
- SER, 1 May 2022 to 31 Jul 2024, closed
- EIC funding
- Grant first; EIC Fund in the 2023 seed round
Where Sentante Stands Today
On 21 May 2026 MedTech Dive reported that Sentante had received a CE mark, allowing it to sell the platform in Europe. Co-founder Tomas Baltrūnas said the company was "transitioning to a commercial stage organization". In the US it is working with the FDA through the agency's Total Product Life Cycle Advisory Program, which it joined in February 2026, to define the route to an investigational trial in remote stroke treatment, and is also pursuing clearance for peripheral vascular use.
The EIC Scaling Club, which profiles the company, lists an FDA Breakthrough Device designation, which the company received in September 2025. In November 2025 a neurosurgeon in Florida used the system to perform a transatlantic thrombectomy on a cadaver in Scotland. On 20 August 2026 Sentante announced commercial deployment of the platform in vascular surgery and interventional radiology, and reported 100% technical success with no device-related complications in its ESSENTIAL first-in-human trial. It did not name hospitals or disclose sales.
The Technology: The Doctor Leaves the Room
The robot's bedside unit grips and advances ordinary, off-the-shelf catheters and guidewires, so hospitals do not need special instruments. The doctor works from a console, feeling resistance through haptic feedback, away from the X-ray source. A study in pigs published in Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology in February 2026 completed all 18 procedures, including stenting, embolisation and angioplasty, without switching to manual control, with minor vessel trauma in three of 16 target vessels. Three of its authors work for or hold shares in the company.
"The first tele-operated endovascular robot in the world which is capable of performing an entire endovascular procedure."
SER project report, CORDISWhat the EIC Project Promised, and What CORDIS Shows
SER ran from May 2022 to July 2024. The CORDIS report says it moved the robot from a prototype at technology readiness level 6 to clinical-trial readiness at level 7, through cadaver tests, animal tests, a GLP animal study and a first-in-human clinical trial, and filed new patent applications. It anticipated CE marking after the project, followed by commercialisation in the EU and the US. A first-in-human study in peripheral interventions has been published in JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions.
- Preclinical validationDeliveredCadaver, animal and GLP studies; 18/18 procedures in pigs.
- First-in-human trialDeliveredPeripheral interventions, published in 2026.
- CE markingDeliveredMay 2026, after the project.
- US market and remote strokeIn progressBreakthrough designation; no FDA clearance or stroke trial yet.
What Has Happened Since the Award
The Money
Sentante's disclosed private funding is a €6 million seed round in December 2023, led by the Baltic venture firm Practica Capital with the EIC Fund, according to the EIC Scaling Club. The EIC's share was not disclosed. We found no larger round announced since, although the company is now entering commercialisation and planning US trials.
What cannot be checked
How many patients have been treated with the robot, which hospitals use it commercially, and the company's revenue and cash position are not public.
Why Europe Should Care
Remote endovascular robotics could one day let a stroke specialist treat patients in hospitals that do not have one, and reduce doctors' radiation exposure. Sentante is a Lithuanian company with a CE-marked system in a field where others, such as SS Innovations, are also pursuing remote stroke treatment, and it has had EU grant and equity support from the start.
What the project promised
The first system enabling fully robotic, tele-operated endovascular interventions, ready for clinical use.
What the record shows
A first-in-human trial, published animal data and a CE mark; remote stroke treatment still pre-clinical.
The Verdict
Delivered, and now it has to sell
The EIC project delivered exactly what it promised: a robot ready for human trials, followed by the trial and then a CE mark. The EIC Fund backed the next step. The harder tests now are commercial, getting hospitals to buy a new robotic platform, and clinical, proving that remote stroke treatment works and is safe.
Sentante has not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records, company statements, scientific publications and EU project data, linked throughout.
Sources
- CORDIS, SER fact sheet and periodic report
- MedTech Dive, CE mark, 21 May 2026
- EIC Scaling Club, Sentante profile
- Unite.AI, commercial deployment, August 2026 and Medical Design & Outsourcing, transatlantic demonstration
- Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology, February 2026 and JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions, first in human
