Andromeda Surgical raises $15M to bring autonomy to the operating room
What's the deal? Andromeda Surgical has raised a $15 million Series A led by Standard CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, with participation from Y Combinator, Vox CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Lingotto Innovation, Alumni Ventures, WestWave CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and others. The company is building an autonomous surgery platform, starting in endourology.
What's the endgame? Endourology covers several of the highest-volume surgical conditions: enlarged prostate, prostate cancer, bladder cancer and kidney stones. Chief executive officer Nick Damiano frames the opportunity around capacity, citing a surgeon shortage that has pushed waitlists past a year in many regions.
He argues the stakes are global. "Globally, five billion people lack access to safe, affordable surgical care when they need it," Damiano said, pointing to skill and efficiency gaps he links to more than a million avoidable deaths and $1 trillion in excess costs each year.
The product: Andromeda's system has been used by urologists in three countries to perform holmium laser enucleation of the prostate, known as HoLEP, in more than 40 patients. The company reports enucleation times as fast as 30 minutes, against a published average of roughly 90 minutes.
Where it's going: The company has regulatory clearance to launch in Canada and New Zealand, with more approvals expected. Its first commercial systems will be installed in hospitals within two months, with plans to increase utilisation, add procedures and ship further autonomous capability over the next year.
Why now? Damiano's thesis leans on a comparison with self-driving cars. "Surgery is a $3.7 trillion global market, and a better application for autonomy than driving," he said, arguing the operating room is a more tractable environment for autonomy than public streets.
The founders bring relevant track records. Damiano previously founded Zenflow, another Y Combinator medtech company, while co-founder and chief technology officer Kartik Tiwari led the team at Starsky Robotics that put a driverless truck on a public road.
The signal: Most surgical robots remain, in Damiano's assessment, largely mechanical instruments with little intelligence of their own. Andromeda is betting that autonomy — proven on roads — is now ready to move into the operating theatre.
Read more: The Silicon Valley Post
Image credit: NavyMedicine
