Activ Surgical™ Raises $15 Million led by ARTIS Ventures to Advance Autonomous and Collaborative Surgery

PR Newswire

BOSTON, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Activ Surgical™, a digital surgery pioneer, today announced the close of a $15 million venture round. The financing was led by ARTIS Ventures, a venture firm focused on pioneering investments at the intersection of life sciences and computer sciences. LRVHealth, the "Inside Healthcare" venture capital platform, joined the round, along with participation from existing investors DNS Capital, GreatPoint Ventures (GPV), Tao Capital Partners and Rising Tide VC.

Activ Surgical is building a hardware-agnostic platform to enable autonomous and collaborative surgery through the integration of computer vision, artificial intelligence and robotics. Activ Surgical will use proceeds of the latest financing round to accelerate U.S. commercialization and European expansion efforts for its ActivEdge^™ platform, which enables existing surgical systems, from scopes to robots, to visualize, characterize and track tissue, in real-time beyond today's human capability. To date, Activ Surgical has raised a total of $32 million.

Preventable medical errors are the third leading cause of death after heart attack and cancer¹, with preventable surgical errors costing U.S. health care $36B+ and 400k+ deaths every year². Activ Surgical's patent-protected surgical software platform reduces unintended and preventable surgical complications by enhancing a surgeon's intra-operative decision making. In 2018, Activ Surgical completed the world's first fully autonomous minimally invasive robotic surgery of soft tissue.

"We believe Activ Surgical's platform and technology are poised to transform the surgical space by enabling existing surgical systems and robots to visualize what surgeons can't and guide them, thus making surgeries safer, reducing errors and improving patient outcomes," said Ameena El-Bibany, principal, ARTIS Ventures. "They have achieved major milestones in just a few years, advancing their technology from early proof of concept to their first market-ready product to be launched with early access partners in 2021. We look forward to partnering with the company to bring impact to both surgeons and patients."

"Developing next generation healthcare solutions is in our DNA at LRVHealth, and it is clear that Activ Surgical will be a disruptor in the digital surgery category," said Will Cowen, co-founder and general partner, LRVHealth. "Our network of limited partners, including leading providers, payers and vendors that together touch one in three healthcare consumers in the U.S., relies on us to help them uncover and develop innovative solutions. Activ Surgical's first-of-its-kind surgical intelligence and sensing platform, driven by a highly seasoned management team, is an excellent fit with our portfolio."

"Activ Surgical is poised to play a leading role in the democratization of surgical care, extending insights from experienced surgeons to surgical systems all over the globe, and ensuring world-class care for all, regardless of location," said Todd Usen, CEO, Activ Surgical. "We welcome the guidance and support from our new and current investors and Board members as we accelerate our efforts to commercialize our first product, ActivSight. 2020 will be pivotal for our business with committed pilot projects with major hospital systems slated to launch by the end of this year."

In conjunction with this fundraise, the Activ Surgical Board of Directors will expand to include Ameena El-Bibany from ARTIS Ventures and Will Cowen from LRVHealth. They will serve alongside current board members Emily Casey, DNS Capital; Ashok Krishnamurthi, Great Point Ventures; Paul Meister, Independent Board Member; Dr. Peter Kim, Activ Surgical; and Todd Usen, Activ Surgical.

For more information about Activ Surgical, the ActivEdge platform, leadership team and Board of Directors, please visit www.activsurgical.com.

About Activ Surgical
Activ Surgical, the company that completed the world's first autonomous robotic surgery of soft tissue, is building hardware-agnostic surgical software that allows surgical systems to collaborate with surgeons. Activ Surgical's patent-protected surgical software platform reduces unintended and preventable surgical complications by enhancing a surgeon's intra-operative decision making. Activ Surgical is privately held, and backed by DNS Capital, GreatPoint Ventures (GPV), Artis Ventures, Tao Capital Partners, LRVHealth, Rising Tide VC, SONY Innovation Fund and 8VC. More information can be found at www.activsurgical.com.

About ARTIS Ventures
ARTIS Ventures partners with entrepreneurs who are driven to impact the world by reshaping and reinventing industries. The team supports its portfolio companies through their entire life-cycle, from initial venture investment to public offering and beyond. As an early leader in the emerging TechBio sector, ARTIS Ventures funds companies at the intersection of computer science and life science, applying engineering principles and data-enabled discovery to the healthcare space. Notable companies the firm has backed include YouTube, Modern Meadow, Nimble Storage, StemCentrx, Palantir, IDbyDNA, Versa Networks, Cohesity, Locus Biosciences, Eko, Excision BioTherapeutics, Aether, Unnatural Products, Inc., and more. For more information visit www.av.co or email contact@av.co.

About LRVHealth
LRVHealth is the "Inside Healthcare" venture capital platform. LRVHealth's investors include leading provider, payer, and vendor organizations, comprising a network that touches one in three healthcare consumers across the U.S. Together, this network collaborates to identify, invest in, and adopt innovative solutions to the industry's most pressing needs. Founded in 2000 by an experienced team of healthcare investors, operators, and advisors, the LRVHealth team provides early stage capital, operating experience, and industry insights to build the next generation of great healthcare companies. For more information please follow LRVHealth on Twitter (https://twitter.com/lrvhealth) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/LRVHealth), or visit www.LRVHealth.com.

¹ Makary MA, Daniel M. Medical error-the third leading cause of death in the US. BMJ. 2016;353:i2139. doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i2139
² James JT. A new, evidence-based estimate of patient harms associated with hospital care. J Patient Saf. 2013;9:122–8. doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/PTS.0b013e3182948a69

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