Medical Microinstruments S.p.A. Announces €20M in Series A Funding to Advance Its Robotic Platform for Microsurgery

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The investor syndicate was led by Andera Partners, formerly known as Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners (EdRIP), with Panakes Partners and Fountain Healthcare, returning Seed investor Sambatech, and two industry veterans Gus Castello, former Senior Vice President of Product Operations for Intuitive Surgical Inc., the world leader in robotic surgery, and John Engels, founder of AxoGen, Inc., a world leader in solutions for peripheral nerve repair in microsurgery.

Giuseppe M. Prisco, CEO of MMI, said, "We are thrilled to have an outstanding group of investors and successful medtech experts supporting the next phase of development of the company and to address together a market opportunity that exceeds $2.5 billion annually." The round aims at completing product and clinical development, obtaining the CE mark and launching in European markets.

"Surgical robotics is a major trend that has yet to penetrate a number of surgical specialties beyond laparoscopy," said Olivier Litzka, Partner, Andera Partners. "MMI is poised to provide the first robotic product for open surgery with wristed microinstruments. We are excited to collaborate with MMI as they work to build a great company in an exciting category."

While robotics has primarily penetrated laparoscopic surgery and more recently orthopedic surgery, microsurgery, used in reconstructive, lymphatic and eye surgeries among others, has remained largely unserved by robotics to date. Microsurgery has seen only incremental advances in optics and instrumentation, with surgical practice being bound to what is manually achievable when working under 5x to 40x optical scaling. MMI is pioneering a disruptive advance in this surgical space by coupling the dexterity of robotically controlled wrist articulation with 5x to 40x motion scaling to match optical magnification.

"MMI represents a great example of the best Italy has to offer, based on its excellence advanced robotics," said Alessio Beverina, Partner, Panakes Partners. "MMI's breakthrough technology will help surgeons who perform complex microsurgery with highly precise dexterity and motion, and tremor-free control."

As part of the financing, Andera Partners' Olivier Litzka, Panakes' Alessio Beverina, Fountain's Justin Lynch as well as industry experts Gus Castello, John Engels and Fabrizio Landi, former CEO and founder of Esaote S.p.A. join the board of MMI together with Carlo Alberto Marcoaldi, Giuseppe M. Prisco and Hannah Teichmann, who co-founded MMI with Massimiliano Simi.

About MMI's Robotic Platform for Microsurgery  

MMI has developed the first teleoperated robotic platform for suturing in open surgery with wristed microinstruments. It offers the surgeon motion scaling and tremor elimination and aims to facilitate existing procedures as well as enable new ones in the domain of microsurgery, from post-oncological and trauma reconstructions to ophthalmology, organ transplantation and pediatric surgery. MMI's Robotic Platform is an investigational device and is not yet commercially available.

About MMI 

Medical Microinstruments S.p.A. (MMI), founded in 2015, is based in Calci (PI), Italy. The company's mission is to help more surgeons around the world to offer more advanced microsurgical procedures, while reducing costs for patients, hospitals and for society at large. http://www.mmimicro.com

About Andera Partners 

Andera Partners is a leading investor in minority investments into privately owned companies. Previously Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, the fund management employs 56 employees and has more than €2 billion under management. Its Life Sciences team of 11 professionals brings together deep experience both in the Life Science industry and in private equity and venture capital. The team has raised more than €800 million through its BioDiscovery franchise and is currently investing out of its € 345 million BioDiscovery 5 fund. Since their inception, BioDiscovery Funds have invested in some 60 privately held companies, of which 16 have been sold and 16 listed on public financial markets, while more than 20 are active in the portfolios.

About Fountain Healthcare  

Fountain Healthcare Partners is a life science focused venture capital fund with €176 million ($200 million) under management. Within the life science sector, specific areas of interest to Fountain include specialty pharma, medical devices, biotechnology and diagnostics. The firm deploys the majority of its capital in Europe, with the balance in the United States. Fountain's main office is in Dublin, Ireland, with a second office in New York. For more information, please visit http://www.fh-partners.com.

About Panakes Partners 

Panakès Partners is a Venture Capital investor that finances medical companies, early stage startup and SMEs, with extremely promising products and great ambition, in Europe and Israel, improving both patient outcomes and healthcare economics. Investments focus on the medical device, diagnostics and healthcare IT fields. Panakès Partners is headquartered in Milan, Italy. http://www.panakes.it.