Shanghai nurtures future unicorns: Two doctors develop surgical robots and secure a 478 million yuan financing in one go.

On September 5th, Ronovo Surgical, a medical technology startup based in Shanghai, announced the completion of its Series D financing round, led by Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC), with an investment of up to $67 million (approximately 478 million yuan). Lilly Asia Ventures (LAV), Yingze Capital, and Granite Asia participated in the follow - on investment.

Earlier this year, Ronovo Surgical secured its Series C financing, which was led by Granite Asia. So far this year, the total financing of Ronovo Surgical has exceeded $100 million.

Right after the completion of this round of financing, Ronovo Surgical also announced the signing of a strategic cooperation agreement with Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices. The two parties plan to integrate Ronovo Surgical's self - developed "Haishan Yi®" modular laparoscopic surgical robot with Johnson & Johnson's leading technologies in the field of minimally invasive surgery. The goal is to provide more digital and intelligent overall solutions for minimally invasive surgeries to medical institutions in specific regions of China.

The "Haishan Yi®" developed by Ronovo Surgical is a new - type laparoscopic surgical robot, featuring "modularity, dexterity, and configurability".

Hospitals can flexibly combine the devices according to different surgical departments (such as general surgery, gynecology, urology, and thoracic surgery), without the drawbacks of traditional all - in - one machines, which are bulky, costly, and difficult to deploy.

This modular design enables medical institutions to deploy the robot system at a higher cost - performance ratio and with stronger adaptability, allowing more hospitals to have the opportunity to use it, reducing the usage threshold and increasing the surgical coverage.

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- 01 -

The founders of Ronovo Surgical are Dr. Ma Changzheng and Dr. Mao Ying.

Dr. Ma Changzheng obtained his master's degree in materials science and engineering (May 1992) and doctorate (December 1996) from Wayne State University in the United States.

He has served as the general manager of GE Healthcare, a global partner of Fosun Group, and the global senior vice - president of Intuitive Surgical, the parent company of the "Da Vinci" surgical robot.

Co - founder Dr. Mao Ying led the R & D of the robotic control system of Auris Health under Johnson & Johnson, was an important developer of the Ottava surgical robot project, and participated in the establishment of the augmented reality company Dreamworld AR.

In 2019, they founded Ronovo Surgical, aiming to manufacture innovative surgical robots truly suitable for the local market based on the real needs of Chinese hospitals and doctors.

At that time, traditional surgical robots had three major core pain points:

- High cost: Both equipment procurement and consumable usage imposed a heavy economic burden on hospitals and patients. For example, the out - of - pocket expense for a patient in a common laparoscopic surgery is a few thousand yuan. However, if using the imported "Da Vinci" robot, the patient has to pay tens of thousands of yuan more, significantly increasing the economic burden.

- Difficult to master: Traditional robots have completely changed doctors' surgical habits, with a steep learning curve. As a result, the number of doctors who can operate them proficiently is scarce, limiting the popularization of the technology. Although there are about 140,000 doctors in China who can perform minimally invasive surgeries, due to the complex operation and significant differences in habits of traditional robots, only about 1,000 doctors are willing to use robots for surgeries.

- Low surgical procedure coverage: Most existing systems are optimized for specific surgical procedures such as urology, and are not very efficient in other departments like general surgery and gynecology.

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Ronovo Surgical hopes to reconstruct surgical robots through modular and split - type design. By reducing the volume of each unit, enhancing flexible configuration capabilities, and being compatible with existing hospital equipment, it can significantly reduce the deployment difficulty and cost.

At the same time, it tries to be as close as possible to the laparoscopic usage methods familiar to surgeons, shortening the learning curve and making the adoption of robots a natural choice.

The team quickly built the prototype of the "Haishan Yi®" robot in about three months. Then, it carried out consecutive rounds of technological iterations and pre - clinical verifications. Animal experiments and cadaver experiments were completed within two years, and it entered the multi - specialty and multi - center human clinical trial stage in 2023.

As of now, the "Haishan Yi®" laparoscopic surgical robot has officially obtained the marketing approval from the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) of China.

This approval has created two "firsts": it is not only the first split - type laparoscopic surgical robot approved for marketing in China. Meanwhile, in its first application for marketing approval, it was approved for all indications in four major specialties, including urology, gynecology, general surgery, and thoracic surgery.

- 03 -

The surgical robot market is no longer a blue ocean. Ronovo Surgical is facing a complex competitive landscape composed of global giants and local upstarts.

For example, more than 7,500 "Da Vinci" surgical robot systems have been installed globally, and over 11 million surgeries have been performed using them.

Its core advantages lie in decades of clinical data accumulation, a complete doctor training system, a strong brand effect, and a mature business model of "equipment + consumables + service". However, its high purchase and maintenance costs, a closed consumables system, and the limitations of the integrated design have also created opportunities for new entrants.

Meanwhile, a number of powerful local competitors have emerged in the Chinese market. They have each chosen different differentiated paths to challenge the position of the "Da Vinci" robot.

Source: Compiled from public information

The competition among surgical robots in China is not a simple competition of imitating the "Da Vinci" robot, but a professional division of labor towards different strategic directions.

- 04 -

With the two technological waves of 5G communication and artificial intelligence, the capabilities of surgical robots are being reshaped to an unprecedented depth.

The connectivity revolution: 5G and remote surgeries. High - speed and low - latency networks represented by 5G are overcoming the long - standing problems of network latency and instability in remote surgeries.

Take the "Tumai" robot of MicroPort as an example. It has successfully carried out hundreds of 5G remote surgeries and even pioneered the use of satellite communication to transmit surgical signals to remote areas without 5G coverage.

This technology is expected to fundamentally solve the problem of uneven distribution of medical resources, enabling patients in grassroots areas to enjoy the surgical services of top - level experts.

Artificial intelligence will equip surgical robots with a "brain". Its application scenarios include:

Enhanced vision: Through AI algorithms, the image quality can be enhanced in real - time, or digital markers of key anatomical structures (such as nerves and blood vessels) can be overlaid in the intraoperative field of view to assist doctors in accurate identification.

Decision support: By analyzing a large amount of surgical data, the system can provide real - time feedback and operation suggestions to doctors, helping to avoid risks and improve the success rate of surgeries.

Task automation: Although fully autonomous surgeries are still a long way off, AI can start to take over repetitive subtasks such as suturing and knotting, allowing surgeons to focus more on key decisions.

The future surgical robot system will have a two - layer structure: the bottom layer is a flexible, reliable, and accessible hardware platform (the "body"), and the upper layer is intelligent and interconnected software and networks (the "brain and nervous system"). Only when the robot devices themselves are widely popularized can the upper - layer intelligent applications have a fertile ground for growth.

With the popularization of cost - effective robots, a large amount of diverse surgical data will be generated. More widespread deployment leads to more data, more data trains more intelligent AI, and more intelligent AI in turn enhances the value of robots, thus promoting more widespread deployment.

The future of surgical robots depends not only on larger and more complex integrated systems but also on more intelligent, flexible, and easily popularized modular platforms.

This article does not constitute any investment advice.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Pencil News" (ID: pencilnews), written by Hai Youmeng and published by 36Kr with authorization.