GE Healthcare made Series C investment in CMR Surgical
US-based global conglomerate GE Healthcare participated in CMR Surgical’s £195million Series C financing round in September, it has been confirmed.
The funding will help the Impington-based unicorn to drive its next-generation robotic surgery system, Versius, into global markets.
GE Healthcare manufactures and distributes diagnostic imaging agents and radio-pharmaceuticals for imaging modalities used in medical imaging procedures. Its 2018 revenues were $19.8billion, and the Chicago-headquartered company employs 54,000 people.
Martin Frost, chief executive officer of CMR Surgical, said: “We are delighted to have attracted investment from GE Healthcare, one of the world’s most respected healthcare companies, to bring advanced technologies to market in a way that has the potential to benefit surgeons and their patients.”
Gustavo Perez-Fernandez, president and chief executive officer, image guided therapies at GE Healthcare, said: “GE Healthcare shares CMR Surgical’s vision of making minimal access surgery available to all.
“We see the Versius surgical robotic system being a key ‘guiding companion’ for surgeons as they pursue minimal access surgery. Along with GE Healthcare’s advanced, high-quality imaging, digital and artificial intelligence tools, we can bring minimal access surgery to more people. CMR Surgical and GE Healthcare both have the potential to transform the way surgeries are performed worldwide and this investment underlines the shared ambition to do so.”
GE Healthcare’s investment in CMR Surgical “further demonstrates its commitment to improve outcomes for healthcare providers and therapy innovators around the world”.
The US company is present in operating rooms around the world with the OEC portfolio of surgical imaging systems. The OEC systems provide real-time imaging to guide surgeons during procedures, enabling them to “see” inside a patient.
The investment “underlines the vision of both companies to bring the benefits of minimal access surgery to more patients around the world which can lead to less trauma during procedures and faster recovery times”.
CMR Surgical, which is based on Evolution Business Park, recently announced its first commercial installations of the Versius surgical robotic system. Versius is a small, modular, and cost-effective robotic system designed to help surgeons and healthcare providers bring the benefits of minimal access surgery to patients worldwide.
“GE Healthcare is well known and respected in the operating theatre,” CMR Surgical’s head of marketing, Patrick Pordage, told the Cambridge Independent. “This is a collaboration between two parties – when we did the Series C investment round we said we had new investors and this is one of those. GE Healthcare is a huge global brand.
Since the last funding round in May 2018, CMR Surgical has further accelerated its growth in order to achieve its mission of bringing minimal access surgery to patients around the world.
Listed as the sixth fastest-growing business in the UK in 2018, the company now has offices located in four continents, and employs 400 people.
The vision behind CMR Surgical is to make minimal access surgery universally accessible and affordable, transforming the existing market for surgical robotics while also addressing the six million people who still undergo open surgery each year. Global annual revenues for robotic-assisted minimal access surgery are approximately $4billion and are anticipated to reach $20billion by 2025.
Galaxy Care Hospital in Pune, India, was the first hospital to acquire Versius in October.
The rollout is “going to plan”, Mr Pordage said, adding: “We want this to be responsibly, clinically introduced to the market.”
