Investors Are Lining up to Back This Digital Surgery Startup

Activ Surgical must be doing something right, because investors seem to be chomping at the bit to support the digital surgery startup and its augmented reality (AR)-based software suite. The company just snagged $45 million in series B funding, bringing its total fundraising efforts to $77 million.

Cota Capital led the round, which included seven new investors plus six existing investors. New investors BAM Funds, Magnetar Capital, Mint Ventures, Castor Ventures, Dream One Vision, NVIDIA, DNS Capital, Tao Capital Partners, LRVHealth, Rising Tide VC, GreatPoint Ventures, and Artis Ventures particpated in the financing.

“Activ Surgical is on pace to solve the ‘last mile’ challenge for the surgical field and revolutionize the operating room as we know it,” said Bobby Yazdani, founder and partner from Cota Capital. “The company’s cutting-edge product portfolio, coupled with its talented and experienced leadership team and staff, has the potential to deliver world-class surgery, regardless of geography or economic status, while helping to save lives and reduce medical complications. We are thrilled to be the lead investor on this series B fundraise, and are excited about what the future holds for the company and its technology.”

Activ Surgical is building a hardware-agnostic platform, including the recently announced ActivInsights AR-based software suite, to enable autonomous and collaborative surgery through the integration of computer vision, artificial intelligence, machine learning (ML), AR, and robotics. The digital surgery company said the new funds will support the commercial availability of the ActivInsights software suite, including the first Insight, an AR-based overlay that displays tissue perfusion in real time without the use of traditional dyes. Activ Surgical will also use the funds to support commercialization in the United States, pursue a CE mark, further enhance the ActivInsights software platform, and to develop its first ML-based insights.

“2021 continues to be a critical year for Activ Surgical as we are laser-focused on democratizing surgical care at the global level,” said Todd Usen, CEO, Activ Surgical. “We received FDA clearance for our ActivSight enhanced visualization module that will power the ActivInsights software suite, and were issued our first U.S. patent for ActivSight, as well as completed our first in-human clinical trials and have grown our team by 35 percent. The addition of seven new investors spanning the medical and technology industries is a wonderful testament to our team’s vision and work to-date. We are thrilled to be supported by this diverse group of investors, and we welcome Bobby to our Board as we look to make our ActivInsights software suite commercially available in 2022.”

Digital surgery has attracted attention in recent years as hospitals explore strategies to meet an expanding workload, especially in operating room (OR), not to mention OR shortages. And COVID-19 has kicked that trend into high gear.

​​“Activ Surgical is on a mission to empower surgeons with the critical information they need,” said Renee Yao, Global Healthcare AI Startups Lead at NVIDIA. “Their team is fusing together technologies to enable real-time intelligence and visualization for the operating room of the future.”