We set the foundations for a new approach to Topological Data Analysis (TDA) based on homotopical methods at the chain complex level. We present the category of tame parametrised chain complexes as a comprehensive environment that includes several cases that usually TDA handles separately, such as persistence modules, zigzag modules, and commutative ladders. We extract new invariants in this category using a model structure and various minimal cofibrant approximations. Such approximations and their invariants retain some of the topological, and not just homological, aspects of the objects they approximate.