CMR Surgical: The Cambridge Challenger to Da Vinci

In 2014, a group of engineers and medtech veterans in Cambridge, England set out to challenge a Goliath: Intuitive Surgical’s Da Vinci robot. Their mission? To democratize robotic surgery with a more versatile, accessible system. That mission became CMR Surgical, short for Cambridge Medical Robotics.

The team, led by CEO Per Vegard Nerseth (formerly of ABB Robotics) and co-founders including Luke Hares, built Versius, a modular robotic platform designed to mimic the movements of a human arm. Unlike Da Vinci’s large, centralized setup, Versius is compact, portable, and allows surgeons to operate with more flexibility — even across multiple operating theaters.

CMR kept a low profile until its 2019 CE mark approval, then rapidly scaled. The company raised over $1 billion, backed by investors like SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Tencent, LGT, and GE Healthcare. It’s now one of the UK’s most valuable private healthtech companies, reportedly valued at over $3 billion.

By 2023, Versius had been used in tens of thousands of procedures across Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East — from hernia repairs to hysterectomies. Its modular design, cloud-based analytics, and surgeon-centric UX make it a serious contender as robotic surgery expands beyond large academic centers to regional hospitals.

CMR’s path hasn’t been without turbulence — whispers of IPO plans were delayed by market volatility. But the ambition is clear: become the global platform for soft tissue robotic surgery, and take on a monopoly with elegant British engineering.