A three-year-old Cambridge start-up has just raised a record $100m to transform healthcare

CMR Surgical, as the company is now called, is a Cambridge-based pioneer in the fast-growing market for surgical robots. It is thought to have just completed the largest fundraising ever in the medical devices sector in Europe.

Investors flocked to the company in what constitutes its second major fundraising round for its revolutionary technology.

CMR's robotic system, Versius, is inspired by the human arm. Surgeons use hand grips to direct robotic 'arms' that hold instruments capable of entering the body through tiny incisions. Speaking to the FT, CRM said this allows 'a whole range of different kinds of surgeries', including upper gastrointestinal, gynaecological, colorectal and renal procedures, to be performed.

It follows a flood of money into Cambridge start-ups in the past year. As The Tab has previously reported, start-ups only a few years old are attracting huge valuations, most notably SoftBank's injection of $500m into loss-making Cambridge virtual reality start-up, Improbable.

For CMR, the $100m investment follows $46m in a 'series A' financing raised previously. The bumper Series B round was led by a new investor, the Chinese Zhejiang Silk Road Fund.

Existing backers Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC) also joined the latest round. CIC has close connections with Cambridge Enterprise, which commercialises Cambridge University spin-outs, and spoke to students at an event on technological disruption held by the Cambridge Guild Careers Society in Lent Term.

While it is not a Cambridge University spinout, CMR employs many Cambridge graduates and its CEO and CFO are both alumni.

The financing round was supported by Perella Weinberg Partners advising CMR. PWP are known to students as one of several boutique investment banks that come to campus every Michaelmas.

The robot-assisted minimal access surgery market is estimated to reach $20 billion by 2025 and Victor Christou, CEO of CIC, said that he believed the Versius system 'has the potential to transform minimal access surgery'.

To interact with CIC and other Cambridge start-ups, email [email protected] to be added to the mailing list. The Cambridge Guild Garden Party on Tuesday 19 June has a limited number of tickets remaining and are available here.