Holland-based Genesis Innovation Group’s cultivate(MD) Capital Fund II LP has announced its participation in Virtual Incision Corp.’s raise of $20 million in Series B+ financing. Virtual Incision is a medical device company in Nebraska pioneering a miniaturized surgical robot.
The funds will support the regulatory and clinical programs leading to the commercialization of MIRA, (miniaturized in vivo robotic assistant) Surgical Robotic Platform. The capital fund invests in early stage health care companies working on new technologies.
MIRA is an investigational portable robot that enables surgeons to perform minimally invasive surgeries in any hospital or surgery center without the space or infrastructure typically required for other mainframe robotic systems. MIRA weighs two pounds and is a portable handheld platform.
“Demand for minimally invasive surgeries continues to increase, and we are enthusiastic about the promise of the MIRA platform to meet this demand, while also delivering unparalleled flexibility,” says Dr. Dmitry Oleynikov, co-founder and chief medical officer of Virtual Incision. “We are focused on expanding access to minimally invasive robotic procedures and delivering this innovation to the many centers where a smaller, simpler, and less costly solution is needed.”
Mainframe-like robots reach into the body from outside the patient while MIRA features a self-contained surgical device that is inserted through a midline umbilical incision in the patient’s abdomen.
The technology is designed to enable complex, multi-quadrant abdominal surgeries using existing tools and techniques familiar to surgeons. Because of its size, using MIRA is expected to be less expensive than existing robotic alternatives for a laparoscopic surgery.
Virtual Incision recently announced that it filed for an Investigational Device Exemption with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Upon approval, the exemption will initiate a confirmatory clinical study of the MIRA Surgical Robotic Platform. The study will evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the MIRA platform for colon resection surgeries in patients at three separate U.S. sites. Colorectal and lower gastrointestinal procedures are among the fastest growing surgeries in the U.S., with more than 400,000 colon resection procedures performed each year.
“Cultivate(MD) is always seeking technologies with the potential to be disruptive in their segment of medical devices,” says David Blue, managing director and vice president of sales and marketing for the cultivate(MD) Capital Fund. “We believe Virtual Incision’s focus on increasing patients’ access to minimally invasive abdominal surgery while reducing costs compared to currently available robotic systems is groundbreaking, and we look forward to MIRA becoming the industry standard.”
 Capital Fund II LP has announced its participation in Virtual Incision Corp.’s $20 million in Series B+ financing.){kind=link}