Shanghai Ronovo Surgical closed a new financing to conduct a multi-discipline clinical trial for its first robotic laparoscopic surgery device, Carina™. With the latest funding, Ronovo has raised more than $50 million since 2020. The company’s Carina device is an innovative modular system that enables configurable robotic assistance across multiple specialties. Led by LongRiver Investments (LRI), Ronovo’s latest round was supported by existing investors Lilly Asia Ventures, Vivo Capital, Matrix Partners China and GGV Capital – with CEC Capital acting as exclusive financial advisor.

At the time of its Series A financing in April 2021, Ronovo said it was founded in 2019 by surgeons, medtech veterans and robotics experts with the goal of bringing the latest surgical technologies to China's market. The company has established a soft tissue surgical robotics R&D program and will also license technology from other surgical device companies. 

Ronovo says Carina offers a modular solution for minimally invasive surgeries that was developed in collaboration with renowned Chinese laparoscopic surgeons. The system provides surgeons flexibility to choose the best instruments and the most ideal anatomical access for a laparoscopy. In this way, surgeons can leverage prior laparoscopic training, while continuing to improve their surgical performance and expanding the use of minimally invasive surgeries to more surgical specialties.

Carina’s modular architecture has a small footprint that preserves OR space, often an issue in China OR environments. The surgical team can choose between 3-module or 4-module configuration depending on the complexity of the procedure, while individual modules are freely mobile to join others as needed in different ORs. Surgeons can also choose from a full suite of instruments to arm each module.

Altogether, the company believes the differentiated clinical capabilities and economic viability of the Carina system will accelerate the adoption of robotic MIS in general surgery, gynecology, thoracic surgery, urology and other specialties. These specialties currently see nearly 10 million MIS patients annually in China, with 120,000 laparoscopic surgeons in over 10,000 hospitals.

The company said its latest financing will accelerate Carina’s clinical trials while strengthening R&D and developing new clinical applications.

“We are extremely grateful to our investors for their confidence in Ronovo’s strategy to democratize robotic surgery,” said Dr. John Ma, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Ronovo. “From inception, we have stayed true to our belief that innovation must start from an original pursuit to solve actual unmet clinical needs.”

“Carina is designed with modular architecture to overcome the limited adoption of robotic MIS beyond urology,” said Dr. Ying Mao, Co-Founder and CTO of Ronovo. “Thanks to the ingenuity and expertise of our talented team, we have achieved breakthrough in our core robotic technology for the Carina platform.”

“We are proud to have led this round of financing in Ronovo and its innovative modular robotic platform, which will be first-to-market in China,” said Jiang Zhang, Founder and CEO of LRI “We are incredibly excited to partner with Ronovo to accelerate their product and clinical development, and we strongly believe in the clinical and commercial value of a modular robotic system as well as its viability for international adoption.”

Ronovo says that, although Carina was developed with input from Chinese laparoscopic surgeons, early discussions with robotic surgery KOLs in US and Europe indicate the system has potential to overcome the barriers of broad RAS adoptions in international markets.

Founded in 2019, Ronovo claims to be the only soft tissue robotic surgery company in China led by seasoned industry leaders with expertise in both commercial leadership and technology development. John Ma, the company’s founder and CEO, is a former SVP at Intuitive and Global Partner at Fosun Group. Co-Founder and CTO Ying Mao is former systems engineering lead at Auris Health (now J&J Ethicon) and founder of Dreamworld AR. Their team has product development and implementation expertise in surgical robotics, industrial robotics, medical capital equipment and medical consumables in China and multinational manufacturers.

See our other articles on Ronovo.

Disclosure: none.