Surgical robotics firm, CMR Surgical, has raised US$165 million in its latest funding round to continue rolling out its next-generation system in hospitals across the world.
Announcing the news, the company revealed that its Versius® surgical robotics system has now been used to perform more than 15,000 surgeries internationally.
The surgical cases span more than 130 complex and benign procedure types including colectomies, hernia repairs, hysterectomies, sacrocolpopexies, and lobectomies across seven surgical specialties.
CMR was established in 2014 with a mission to transform lives by making minimal access surgery (MAS) more accessible and affordable with Versius, a small, modular, and versatile surgical robotic system.
Versius gained CE approval in 2019, and more than 140 Versius systems have now been installed in hospitals in the UK, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
The funding round of $165 million (£133m) was led by its major existing investors, including Ally Bridge Group, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Escala Capital, LGT, Lightrock, RPMI Railpen, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Tencent and Watrium.
According to the company, the funds will be used to drive continued product innovation, including new technological developments, and to support the further commercialisation of the system in key existing, and new, geographies.
CMR’s vision is to make MAS universally accessible, rapidly increasing the number of robotic-assisted procedures that take place globally. The global soft-tissue robotic-assisted MAS market is estimated to be worth over $7bn per annum and is growing at over 15% per annum.
Supratim Bose, chief executive officer at CMR Surgical, said: “I am incredibly proud of our teams and what CMR stands for as we pass this latest milestone and work towards our vision of making minimal access surgery available to everyone. The benefits of MAS for patients are enormous and I am excited to see the continued adoption of Versius around the world, and the positive impact it is having on hospitals, surgeons, and, ultimately, their patients.
“More and more surgeons and patients are benefiting from Versius and our latest funding round will allow us to serve even more customers, supporting our continued growth in existing markets, as well as expansion into new key markets. Versius’ unique versatility and differentiated offering, enabled by its patented V-wrist technology, continues to receive positive feedback from hospitals and surgical teams. We are inspired by its potential to change the way the world receives surgical care.”
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The 15,000 procedures have been performed using Versius in a range of differently sized hospitals, including globally-renowned research hospitals such as Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (UK), Institute Curie (France), Policlinico di Milano (Italy), Max Super Specialty Hospital (India), the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) (Pakistan), Hospital Moinhos de Vento (Brazil), Gleneagles Hospital (Hong Kong) and Klinikum Chemnitz GmbH (Germany).
Mr Adam Peryt, consultant thoracic surgeon at Royal Papworth Hospital, commented: “Versius is very well suited to our needs as a world-leading thoracic surgery department. We have successfully helped patients get the benefit of robotic assisted surgery and we look forward to developing our robotics programme working with CMR and other centres around the world as the adoption of Versius continues.”
Umur Hursever, Lightrock and Chairman at CMR Surgical added: “At Lightrock, we are committed to supporting innovators who make a positive contribution to humanity and the planet. We have always been impressed by not only CMR’s product, Versius, but also its exceptional people. CMR is one of those innovators who are blazing its own trail with Versius, a differentiated robotic experience that democratises robotic surgery both procedurally and geographically. With this latest raise, we are delighted to be supporting CMR in its mission to make robotic keyhole surgery available to everyone.”
The company’s latest clinical milestone and financing announcement follows the recent news that it has received the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England) accreditation for its global professional education portfolio.
