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Home » Vicarious Surgical’s board wants to shut down and liquidate robotics developer

Vicarious Surgical’s board wants to shut down and liquidate robotics developer

July 15, 2026 By Jim Hammerand

Vicarious Surgical's robot holding a dime to show its miniature size.
Vicarious Surgical designed its robot to function through an incision with a diameter smaller than a dime. [Illustration courtesy of Vicarious Surgical]
The Vicarious Surgical (OTCQB:RBOT) board of directors wants to close the struggling surgical robotics developer as soon as next week.

The board is asking shareholders to approve their plan to dissolve and liquidate the business at a special meeting scheduled for July 21, but said it can not predict how much (if anything) investors would recover or when.

The proposal needs a majority vote. Vicarious Surgical executives and directors control shares equal to 55% of total voting power.

In a securities filing, the board warned investors that, “based upon our current outstanding liabilities, it is unlikely you will receive any distribution.”

With shareholder approval, the board would select an assignee to liquidate the soft-tissue robotics developer’s assets to settle outstanding obligations.

“Since inception, we have experienced recurring operating losses and negative cash flows, and we expect to continue to generate operating losses and consume significant cash resources for the foreseeable future,” the company said in the filing, reporting nearly $3.7 million of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments as of March 31.

“We do not expect our cash and cash equivalents to be sufficient to continue as a going concern for any significant period of time,” the company continued. “Although we are currently exploring various strategic alternatives, including strategic partners and financing opportunities, it is unlikely that these strategic alternatives will be successful in the next few weeks prior to our cash position getting to the point that we will need to pursue our winding down and dissolution. To date, we have been unable to secure additional equity, debt or other financing and have been unsuccessful in our efforts to attract a buyer for our business.”

Results of the vote may be announced the same day, and the board plans to immediately cease all business operations except for the wind-up and liquidation.

Surgical robotics expert Steve Bell flagged an auction of the company’s assets on LinkedIn today, saying “it looks like the end of the road for another interesting soft tissue robot.”

Medical Design & Outsourcing: Vicarious sees a big opportunity in hernia repair

Three executives (who are also board directors) are set to receive severance payouts if they’re terminated without cause or resign for good reason.

Vicarious Surgical CEO Stephen From.
Vicarious Surgical CEO Stephen From [Photo courtesy of Vicarious Surgical]
CEO Stephen From would receive at least $500,000, co-founder and President Adam Sachs would receive at least $541,620, and co-founder Chief Technology Officer Sammy Khalifa would receive at least $318,600.

All three would also receive outstanding equity awards, partial payouts for their target bonuses, and payments equal to the cost of COBRA health care premiums for varying lengths of time.

Those severance deals are part of executive employment contracts that were amended in the first quarter of 2026.

Sachs and Khalifa alone held 54% of voting power as of June 10, the company said. Other large investors include co-founder Dr. Barry Greene (13%), Khosla Ventures (5%) and Gates Frontier (3%).

The liquidation would not be a federal bankruptcy procedure, with the board saying it “believe that as compared to a filing under federal bankruptcy laws, the assignment and dissolution may present the best opportunity for recovery for our creditors and also may provide an opportunity for future payments to our stockholders, although payments to stockholders are unlikely.”

The company said there are “uncertainties as to the ultimate amount of our liabilities” in the most recent filing, but reported $9 million in total liabilities at the end of March and $12.6 million in assets.

The company lost $7.3 million that quarter, following a $50.2 million loss in 2025 and $63 million loss the year before.

As of March 9, Vicarious reported 26 employees: 11 in R&D, regulatory and clinical, eight in manufacturing and quality assurance, and seven in marketing, sales, and administration. The company said it leases 42,000-square-feet of office space at its Waltham, Massachusetts headquarters.

Since then, Vicarious Surgical CFO Sarah Romano has tendered her resignation to take the same role at SS Innovations on Aug. 3.

Company officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment from MassDevice, but we’ll update this story if they do.

Learn more about the surgical robotics market in our 2026 MassDevice Surgical Robotics Special Report.

Filed Under: Business/Financial News, Featured, News Well, Surgical Robotics Tagged With: Vicarious Surgical

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About Jim Hammerand

Jim Hammerand is the managing editor of Arrowfly's MassDevice and Medical Design & Outsourcing, where he leads coverage of medtech innovation, design, engineering and manufacturing. He also contributes to our Devicetalks podcasts and live events. Hammerand has more than two decades of journalism experience spanning newspapers, magazines, websites, live events, radio and TV news. For nearly a decade, Hammerand reported and edited business news for American City Business Journals as a reporter and digital editor at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal and then as managing editor of the Puget Sound Business Journal in Seattle. He holds degrees in journalism and management from the University of Minnesota and has won journalism awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, American Society of Business Publication Editors, and Trade, Association, Business Publications International. Connect with him on LinkedIn or by email at [email protected].

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