Vicarious Surgical Secures $10 Million Funding to Advance VR-Enhanced Robotic Surgery Platform

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that on January 31, 2019, medical robotics startup Vicarious Surgical secured $10 million in a new round of financing to develop its virtual reality-enhanced robotic-assisted surgical platform.

This round of financing came from existing investors Khosla Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, and Innovation Endeavors. Vicarious Surgical stated that a total of six investors participated in this round, but the company has not yet disclosed the full list. To date, Vicarious Surgical has completed four rounds of financing. In April 2018, the company raised $16.8 million in Series A funding from investors including Bill Gates.

Vicarious Surgical, founded in 2014 and headquartered in Texas, USA, is a medical robotics startup. The company was co-founded by two Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates, Adam Sachs and Sammy Khalifa, along with surgeon Barry Greene.

It is reported that Vicarious Surgical has developed a platform that integrates virtual reality (VR) technology with surgical robotics. The platform aims to enable surgeons to perform minimally invasive procedures through a single small incision, leveraging VR and robotic assistance to enhance visualization and precision. Through its innovative technology, Vicarious Surgical seeks to augment surgeons’ operative capabilities and improve patient outcomes.

In the medical field, VR technology and surgical robots are hardly novelties. However, Vicarious Surgical claims that its technology has achieved the ultimate goal of surgical robotics in healthcare. “We are leveraging miniature robots and immersive VR technology to give surgeons superpowers—akin to shrinking a surgeon down to enter the patient’s body to perform surgery,” said Dror Berman, a partner at Vicarious Surgical.

Khosla Ventures, founded in 2004 and headquartered in California, USA, is a venture capital firm. The firm focuses on investing in early-stage companies in the fields of internet, computing, biotechnology, and healthcare.

AME Cloud Ventures, established in 2012, is a venture capital firm led by Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang. The firm is dedicated to investing in late-stage technology companies, with China being one of its key investment markets.

Innovation Endeavors, established in 2012, is a venture capital firm dedicated to investing in visionary companies and empowering entrepreneurs in the big data, computing, and robotics sectors to drive industry transformation. The firm manages over $1 billion in assets and has invested in ride-hailing platform Uber.

(Compiled by Jiao Yanli)