Robotics business CMR Surgical has raised another £133 million after surpassing its 15,000th procedure globally.
The Cambridge firm, which raised £425m Series D financing in 2021 and £195m in a Series C round in 2019, says the Versius Surgical Robotic System has been used across 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 more accessible and affordable with Versius, a small, modular, and versatile surgical robotic system. Versius gained CE approval in 2019, and today, more than 140 Versius systems have been installed in hospitals around the world across the UK, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
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).
The funding round, which was increased from the initial base size due to strong internal demand, was led by all of its major existing investors, including Ally Bridge Group, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Escala Capital, LGT, Lightrock, RPMI Railpen, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Tencent and Watrium.
The funds are to 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.
“Versius is very well suited to our needs as a world-leading thoracic surgery department,” said Adam Peryt, consultant thoracic surgeon at Royal Papworth Hospital. “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.”
The news follows Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England) accreditation for its global professional education portfolio. The accreditation by RCS England is an internationally recognised hallmark of quality and serves as a recognition of excellence for the Versius surgical training programme.
The recognition follows the company being awarded a King’s Award for Enterprise for Innovation for Versius, its small and modular next-generation surgical robotic system.
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.”