UK robotic surgery group raises $165mn

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UK robotic surgery group CMR Surgical has raised $165mn from existing investors including Japan’s SoftBank to fuel its global expansion as more surgeons embrace technology in operating theatres.

The UK’s largest private medtech company, CMR Surgical last raised money in 2021 with a $600mn injection at a valuation of $3bn. The valuation has not increased since then. 

Robotic surgery has been growing steadily thanks to technological advances and rising demand for less invasive procedures. Robots can often perform surgery using smaller incisions than human surgeons.

Supratim Bose, who started as chief executive in March, said robotic surgery often reduced pain and recovery time, and that the company was “determined that minimal-access surgery should reach patients around the world”. 

The global soft tissue robotic-assisted surgery market is worth in excess of $7bn a year, according to the company, and is growing at more than 15 per cent a year. Bose said with robotic surgery still making up only 3-4 per cent of all operations, the sector offered “great opportunity”. 

He said CMR Surgical was trying to disrupt a market that was “almost a monopoly for close to two decades”, with California-based Intuitive Surgical holding about 80 per cent of the market.

CMR Surgical’s Versius system has been used to perform more than 15,000 surgical procedures in more than 20 countries since its launch in 2019. “We believe that our vision is a very, very strong and unique one,” Bose said.

Versius can be used for more than 130 procedures, from hernia repairs to hysterectomies, across seven surgical specialities. It also collects data on operations, which could provide surgeons with additional information, as well as help the company improve the system’s design. 

The Cambridge-headquartered company has its manufacturing facility just outside the university city. Bose said that the UK needed to reform taxes to help innovative companies. 

CMR Surgical’s former chief executive Per Vegard Nerseth last year warned then UK prime minister Boris Johnson that the UK would lose out on manufacturing investment if it failed to offer more incentives.

Bose said the funding round was increased from its initial size owing to strong internal demand. The fundraising included all of the company’s major existing investors, including Ally Bridge Group, Cambridge Innovation Capital and Tencent. 

CMR Surgical, which did not open the round to new investors, plans to use the funds to improve its product and invest in its commercial capabilities to continue to gain market share.

“Our investors have shown so much interest, shown so much support for us, that it indicates that better things will happen over time,” Bose said.