“We will go slow to go big,” CMR Surgical’s CEO Massimiliano Colella told MassDevice in an interview, saying the company’s commercial plans largely remain the same as before, but with an added boost.
“We’ll be using that money not exclusively for the U.S. market, but also to enhance and speed our R&D progress,” Colella said. “So more or less our strategic plan remains the same, but now we have the pleasure of a very strong partner in two focused areas: the U.S. market and investment in R&D.”
Following the FDA’s clearance of CMR’s Versius Plus last December, with an initial green light in gallbladder removal procedures, the U.K.-based company said it officially began rolling out the robot stateside in March.
However, 2026 was always meant to be a learning year, as it worked to get the proper pieces in place.
“We called it a soft launch for two reasons. First of all because, in parallel, we were already working on this possible deal of having Stryker be our agent in the U.S.,” Colella said. “And second, because we have only one indication, we don’t think that we are ready to push and to go full speed into the market.”
So far, with about 50 cases completed, Colella said the companies have learned that their focus on outpatient settings and ambulatory surgical centers remains a great fit. “But we also understood the market is super excited about having alternatives.”
Versius Plus, with its robotic arms mounted on modular, wheeled carts, aims to offer flexibility in a wider variety of operating rooms, without needing the dedicated infrastructure of larger systems. According to Colella, more than 70% of Versius’ global customers have been providers establishing a robotic surgery program for the first time.
Related: Stryker dives into soft-tissue robotics with $400M play for CMR Surgical’s Versius
“[Stryker has] seen our approach to the ASC market and the way we were thinking about it, and they liked it… But at the same time, when we said there is a bigger opportunity, they started looking at that and said, ‘Okay, let’s understand this more.’”
With another indication in gynecologic surgeries currently under FDA review and expected before the end of the year, Colella said he sees CMR and Stryker entering 2027 at full swing. And while part of the $400 million investment will support R&D and CMR’s international ambitions, it will also help bolster its U.S. commercialization.
“We will probably need to be bigger, because we need to support a demanding partner,” Colella said, and the company is building out its customer support and training programs. “These will remain completely in CMR’s field and control.”
The company is also confident about its business outside the U.S., where it has logged placements in more than 30 countries and over 45,000 procedures performed across colorectal, urologic, gynecologic, thoracic and general surgeries.
But CMR isn’t the only international robotics developer to receive a recent nine-figure investment. Medtronic put $700 million last month into the Hong Kong-based Cornerstone Robotics and its boom-mounted Sentire system.
“We do acknowledge and understand that this part of the world is becoming crowded,” Colella said. “But the reason we remain bullish is if you look at the architecture of these robots, we continue to be the only different one. With all due respect for the incoming new robots, they are similar to the incumbent Intuitive.”
“We have to continue to focus on the differentiation. That is our way. It has been the same from day one. If we keep focusing on the differentiation, we will have a portion of that market always available for us.”
