Medical robotics  company with £1bn valuation

Five Cambridge medical engineers  who set up in 2014, a surgical robotic company  has hit a valuation of £1bn. CMR is launching its first surgical product and its  Versius, a versatile and portable robot that provides the surgeon with multiple arms to carry out a range of keyhole  with minimum access procedures after a £195m, financing.

The fundraising the largest in Europe’s medical technology sector,  will fully fund global commercialisation of the business according to Martin Frost CEO.

Versius surgical robot will be launched this year in the UK, Europe and India where clinical trials have already taken place at Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital in Pune, India, where the trails  on patients with gynaecological and gastrointestinal disorders including hysterectomy and gall bladder removal.  Three arms are in action during a typical operation.

Cambridge Innovation Capital a venture capital fund set up by Cambridge University has been an anchor investor in three financing rounds that have raised a total of £309m for CMR and other investors include LGT, Escala Capital Investments, Watrium, Zhejiang Silk Road Fund and Vestland Invest. CMR employs over 400 people at its manufacturing research and development base.

Martin Frost said “ Our mission is to build a world-class medical devices company from Cambridge as there is no longer any British company in the top tier of the global medical devices industry”.

Worldwide revenues from robotic surgical assistants are about £3.22bn ( $4bn) a year growing  about 20 per cent a year with a projected revenue of £ 16bn (20bn) by 2025.