CMR Surgical has picked up $165m as SoftBank and Tencent double down on the British robotics unicorn.
The round involved only existing investors and follows the company’s $600m Series D in 2021 — which remains the biggest ever raise by a robotics startup in Europe and saw CMR Surgical valued at $3bn. The company’s valuation has not increased since then.
What CMR Surgical does
Founded in 2014, CMR Surgical sells robotics systems to hospitals worldwide that help surgeons perform operations to treat cancer and bowel disease. Its flagship product Versius, launched in 2019, costs hospitals between £1m-1.5m.
Since its last raise in 2021, CMR Surgical’s technology has gone from being used in 1,000 procedures to 15k but the company has not been immune from a shifting funding landscape. It tells Sifted that it had made layoffs in 2023 but would not confirm how many jobs were lost.
LinkedIn data reveals that the firm’s total headcount fell from 861 to 762 between June and September. “The funding environment means a company has to focus on making sure it’s sustainable,“ a CMR Surgical spokesperson tells Sifted.
What’s next?
CMR Surgical will use the funds to expand in the US, Japan and China, pending regulatory approval. It declined to comment on when it expects to be able to release products in those markets.
The market
In April, Swiss company Distalmotion raised $150m from US private equity firm Revival Healthcare Capital as it looked to get FDA approval for its robot “Dexter“ and expand into the US.
And there have been other smaller raises in the sector this year. France’s Moon Surgical picked up $55.4m in May, compatriot Ganymed Robotics €15m in January and Switzerland’s Nanoflex Robotics $12m in February.
Who invested
Alongside SoftBank’s Vision 2 Fund and Tencent, all of the company’s major existing investors from its previous round also participated, including:
- Ally Bridge Group
- Cambridge Innovation Capital
- Escala Capital
- LGT
- RPMI Railpen
- Watrium
This article previously said that the raise was the biggest European healthtech round of 2023. Sifted can't confirm this, as CMR Surgical did not respond to our request for comment on whether the round was debt or equity.
