Vicarious Surgical comes out of stealth with $17m Series A for VR-based robot-assisted surgery device

Vicarious Surgical came out of stealth mode today by announcing a nearly $17 million Series A round for the virtual reality-augmented robot-assisted surgery platform it’s developing.

Cambridge, Mass.-based Vicarious, which first reported a $2.4 million raise in January 2016 and another $800,000 in October of that year, opened the Series A round in January with a nearly $13 million installment. Today the company said Khosla Ventures and Innovation Endeavors led the $16.8 million Series A, joined by Gates Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures and Salesforce founder & CEO Marc Benioff. The proceeds are earmarked for continued development and team expansion, Vicarious said.

In a prepared statement Vicarious said its device “combines virtual reality with proprietary human-like surgical robotics to enable surgeons to perform minimally invasive surgery through a single micro-incision,” claiming to have achieved “the goal of surgical robotics since the field’s inception – to shrink the surgeon and put them inside the patient.”

“We are thrilled to have support from such a strong group of investors, who will help us build out our team as we continue to develop our technology,” CEO Adam Sachs said in prepared remarks. “Our platform will improve patient access to the latest in minimally invasive robotic surgery. We believe the best surgical technology should not be limited to major hospitals, and we are grateful to partner with investors who share this mission.”

“Vicarious Surgical is using miniaturized robotics and immersive virtual reality to give surgeons superpowers, exponentially improving visibility and accuracy in minimally invasive surgery,” added Innovation Endeavors founding partner Dror Berman. “This approach is poised to drive a super evolution in surgical care that will save lives.”

“When we first invested in Vicarious Surgical’s seed round in 2016, virtual reality surgical robotics was still a proof-of-concept,” Khosla Ventures founding general partner Samir Kaul said in the statement. “We are excited to see the progress they have made in just two years and are proud to partner with them as they develop surgical robotics around the needs of surgeons and patients worldwide.”

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