Auris Surgical Robotics, a 10-year-old, San Carlos, Ca.-based surgical robotics company that was founded by serial entrepreneur Frederic Moll, has quietly raised $280 million in Series D funding led by Coatue Management.
The company had previously raised at least $184 million from investors, shows Crunchbase. Its other backers include Mithril Capital Management (cofounded by Peter Thiel and Ajay Royan), Lux Capital, NaviMed Capital, and Highland Capital Partners.
Auris is an interesting company, largely because of Moll, who previously founded three other companies, including 22-year-old, publicly traded Intuitive Surgical, which also makes robotic surgical systems and whose market cap is right now hovering around $35 billion, and Hansen Medical, a company that developed tools to manipulate catheters. Moll cofounded Hansen in 2002 and took it public in 2006. The company, which never gained the kind of traction that Intuitive has enjoyed, was acquired last summer by Auris in a deal valued at roughly $80 million.
Auris announced its newest round of funding in an easy-to-miss paragraph on its website, and it’s been similarly low key about its work to date, though it says that lung cancer is the “first disease” in its sights.
It’s a huge opportunity (alas). Despite a wealth of information about the dangers…