Robotics startup Moon Surgical recently gained a healthy influx of capital and a distinguished board member.

The company, based in Paris and San Francisco, announced the close of a $55.5 million funding round on Wednesday. The round, which brings Moon’s total funding to date to $90 million, was led by Sofinnova Partners and NVentures, Nvidia’s venture capital arm. 

Fred Moll was among the other investors in the round — he’s the founder of Intuitive Surgical and robotic surgery company Auris Health, which was acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 2019. Moon appointed him as independent chair of its board.

In this phase, Moon is focused on developing and commercializing its Maestro system. 

The two-arm robotic system, which is designed to be positioned next to an operating room table, enhances a surgeon’s capabilities by giving them an extra set of arms and hands. The robotic assistant can hold and maneuver surgical instruments, probes and cameras, Moon CEO Anne Osdoit explained in a recent interview. 

The Maestro system has received the go-ahead to be used in laparoscopic procedures in the U.S. and European Union — the robotic surgical assistant achieved FDA clearance in December and European regulatory clearance last month.

Moon is planning to execute a limited market release in the U.S. next year, Osdoit said. The company will sell the system to ambulatory surgical centers and outpatient surgical departments with high volumes of general or bariatric surgeries.

“To date, surgical robots are confined to specialty usage and are very complex and costly to use as the standard of care. Surgeons love them for the increased control and confidence they provide, but they require dedicated staff, rooms, instruments and training. They completely change the surgical workflow and technique,” Osdoit explained.

Through its Maestro system, Moon is seeking to make it easier for surgeons to seamlessly integrate surgical robots into their current practice of laparoscopy, she said.

Osdoit pointed out that only about 6% of soft tissue surgeries are assisted with a surgical robot, and those are almost exclusively supported by Intuitive Surgical’s Da Vinci robot.

“Large platforms such as Da Vinci are inherently limited by implementation complexity and cost. Moon Surgical is going after the 94% of procedures currently not served by surgical robotics,” she declared.

This goal is the reason Osdoit gave Moon its name, she said. Just like trying to land on the moon, she thinks the company’s goal is “inspirational and ambitious, yet achievable.”

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