Surgical robotics company CMR raises $600M

UK-based robotics company CMR Surgical this morning announced a $600 million Series D. This latest round, led by Softbank’s Vision Fund 2 and co-led by Ally Bridge Group, joins an existing $384.8 million already raised by the Cambridge firm. It values the company at $3 billion.

CMR’s flagship product is Versius. The robotic system is designed to perform minimally invasive keyhole surgery, primarily focused on serious conditions like bowel disease or bowel cancer. The platform has been used globally and has thus far been involved in 1,000 surgeries, according to CMR’s numbers.

Four NHS (National Health Service) hospitals in the U.K. have enlisted the surgical platform, along with a slew of other locations in Europe, India, the Middle East and Australia. As CMR notes, the pandemic has resulted in a massive backlog in surgical procedures.

Like many other robotic surgical platforms, one of Versius’s primary appeals is a sense of accessibility – essentially helping level the playing field for complex procedures. The system is modular and portable compared to a number of competitors, further increasing that accessibility. The company says funding will go toward accelerating the platform’s global roll out.

“This latest financing equips CMR with significant funds to accelerate our mission of bringing Versius to hospitals worldwide, whilst providing full flexibility to achieve our goals,” CEO Per Vegard Nerseth said in a release tied to the news. “This major injection of capital that now values us at $3billion not only reflects the level of interest we have seen in our product, but also the scale of the business, and will enable significant technology developments and global expansion.”

Surgical robotics have been an increasingly popular category for VC funds of late. Recent rounds include $96 million for Memic, $10 million for ForSight and $15 million for Activ. Even by those standards however, this is a massive round for the category.