CMR Surgical surpasses 15,000 surgical procedures on Versius globally as it raises $165 million to support continued growth 

CMR Surgical (CMR or ‘the Company’) – the global surgical robotics business – has today announced that its next-generation Versius® Surgical Robotic System has been used to perform more than 15,000 surgeries globally. 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 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 of $165 million (£133m), 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. CMR’s vision is to make MAS universally accessible, rapidly increasing the number of robotic-assisted procedures that take place globally. Today, 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.

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.”

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.”

Umur Hursever, Lightrock and Chairman at CMR Surgical commented: “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. 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. This 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.

Read the press release here