Swiss medical device company Distalmotion bags €136.9M to bring its surgical robot to the US

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Switzerland-based Distalmotion, a medical device company that has developed a surgical robot called Dexter to establish a new standard of care, announced on Wednesday, April 19, the first close of its $150M (approximately €136.94M) round of funding.

In January 2022, Distalmotion raised $90M in its Series E round of funding.

Distalmotion says the current fundraising reinforces the confidence of its existing investors led by Revival Healthcare Capital.

Founded in 2018, Revival HealthCare Capital is a private equity firm that specialises in the medical device and diagnostic sectors of healthcare. 

Revival seeks a wide range of possibilities through the formation of tailored investment partnerships where its team of experienced operators offers leadership, resources, and skills to assist companies’ growth goals.

“Making sense of robotic surgery”

Founded in 2012, Distalmotion is a medical device company that serves as a partner to hospitals and clinics worldwide, and claims to provide reliable and precise robotic surgery systems at fair per-procedure cost. 

The company was founded in 2012 as a spin-off of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL).

Distalmotion aims to simplify robotic surgery in order to establish a new standard of care. It wants to provide patients in general surgery, gynaecology, and urology with ‘best-in-class’ minimally invasive therapy. And to do that, it has developed a surgical robot called Dexter.

Distalmotion CEO Michael Friedrich says, “Dexter allows for ‘on-demand robotics’ and gives surgeons access to the benefits of both robotic and laparoscopic surgery, enabling best-in-class minimally invasive care for the patients.”

“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 specialised tasks such as stapling with their preferred and trusted instruments. Surgeons are therefore empowered with choice and control.”

Dexter is simple to implement into clinical practice since it requires no new infrastructure, fits into any clinical environment, and is transportable, allowing for cross-departmental collaboration. 

This enables institutions to scale robotics programmes across surgical specialties in order to provide a higher level of care to more patients in both hospital and surgery centre settings.

Prof. Dieter Hahnloser, head of colorectal surgery at Lausanne University Hospital, who performed the first general surgery procedure with Dexter in 2021, says, “Dexter delivers what surgeons need most for when it matters most. It provides advanced dexterity for complex surgical steps such as suturing, dissection and working in confined spaces.” 

“Dexter’s open platform allows surgeons to choose the best-in-class tools and technology for each step of the procedure. It is compatible with all 3D laparoscopes which allow surgeons to leverage current and future imaging innovations.”

Capital utilisation

According to Distalmotion, Dexter is in use in Europe on a daily basis, treating patients across a wide range of challenging and high-volume operations in general surgery, gynaecology, and urology.

This raised capital will pave the road for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance in the US, as well as accelerate clinical trials in Europe.

Rick Anderson, Chairman of Revival and Chairman of Distalmotion, says, “This latest financing sets the stage for Distalmotion to accelerate our mission of expanding the adoption of Dexter to hospitals worldwide.”

“We are very proud of our global leadership team’s accomplishment to bring Distalmotion’s technology to the market and to set the stage for the company’s entry into the US market.”

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Vishal Singh

Vishal Singh is a News Reporter and Social Media Marketing Lead at Silicon Canals. He covers developments in the European startup ecosystem and oversees the publication's social media presence. Before joining Silicon Canals, Vishal gained experience at the Indian digital media outlet Inc42, contributing to its growth with insightful content. Despite being a college dropout, his passion for writing has driven his career in journalism.

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