Distalmotion collects $150M to bring hybrid surgery robot to the US

It’s a banner week for venture capital-backed startups in robotic surgery. Distalmotion collected $150 million to fund its minimally invasive system—making it the second company in the field to post the nine-figure figure in less than 24 hours.

Distalmotion’s Dexter robot is currently being used in Europe for daily procedures in gynecology, urology and general surgery. The latest proceeds will help bring the system to the U.S. market by furthering efforts to obtain FDA approval, the company said in its announcement. The fundraising was led by Revival Healthcare Capital, with additional backing from previous investors.

Offering what the Swiss company has described as an on-demand, hybrid approach to robotic surgery, the system is designed to allow clinicians to swap between the device’s two machine-guided arms and hand-operated laparoscopic instruments when extra dexterity is required.

“Surgeons can choose to operate entire procedures robotically, or they can leverage the ability to easily switch between the robotic and laparoscopic modalities to perform specialized tasks such as stapling with their preferred and trusted instruments,” Distalmotion CEO Michael Friedrich said in the release.

Earlier this week, the Silicon Valley-based Noah Medical also declared a $150 million fundraising, to support its FDA-cleared Galaxy robotic system for conducting lung tissue biopsies. That company’s series B round was led by the Softbank Vision Fund and co-led by Prosperity7 Ventures.

Distalmotion previously picked up $90 million in January 2022, in a series E financing that was also headed up by Revival Healthcare Capital. Revival’s chairman, Rick Anderson, currently serves as the chairman of Distalmotion as well.