ZAP Surgical raises $36M to scale vault-free brain radiosurgery
What's the deal? Zap Surgical Systems has raised $36 million in a late-stage financing led by Catalio Capital ManagementDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, with continued backing from Baheal, its strategic partner in China. The San Carlos, California company makes ZAP-X, a non-invasive robotic radiosurgery platform for brain tumours and other conditions of the head and neck.
What's the endgame? ZAP-X delivers radiation from more than 1,000 beam angles and uses built-in shielding, removing the need for a dedicated radiation vault. It also runs on a modern linear accelerator rather than radioactive cobalt — cutting the cost and complexity of installing radiosurgery in hospitals and outpatient settings.
Where the money goes: ZAP will use the capital to expand ZAP-X across academic centres, community hospitals, and physician-led practices, and to scale production. The company says it has shipped its 50th system and treated nearly 10,000 patients worldwide.
Why now? The round follows a recent string of international deployments, including first installations in Thailand and additional systems in Japan. ZAP is also pushing beyond cancer into "radiomodulation" — using targeted low-dose radiation for psychiatric disorders, with a first-in-human pilot in treatment-resistant depression and planned multi-centre trials.
"This financing reflects our conviction that ZAP Surgical is uniquely positioned to usher in a new wave of non-invasive radiosurgery globally," said Catalio's Nicholas von Guionneau, who joins ZAP's board as an observer.
What could go wrong? ZAP faces entrenched rivals. ElektaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →'s Gamma Knife has a large installed base and won US clearance in 2025 for an added epilepsy use. The new financing is smaller than the $78 million round ZAP raised in November 2024, and the announcement discloses no valuation or terms — so deployments and overseas partnerships still need to convert into repeatable sales.
The signal: The round, in the top third of deals by size, shows investors remain willing to fund lower-infrastructure alternatives to established radiosurgery systems. But with company-reported milestones standing in for broad adoption, ZAP's challenge is turning installations into commercial traction.
Read more: finance.yahoo.com
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
