Dive Brief:
- China’s Ronovo Surgical has closed a $67 million Series D financing round led by JJDC, Johnson & Johnson’s venture capital organization, the company said Friday in a statement posted on LinkedIn.
- In addition, Ronovo signed an agreement with Johnson & Johnson Medical Shanghai Ltd. to expand surgical technology offerings to hospitals in parts of China. The collaboration covers Ronovo’s Carina robotic surgery platform for soft tissue procedures and complementary J&J surgical products.
- Shanghai-based Ronovo also said it has begun an international expansion that includes regulatory submissions in Europe and South America.
Dive Insight:
Ronovo has raised more than $100 million over the past year, including its Series C round led by Granite Asia. The company brought in $44 million in Series B financing in 2024, after previously securing more than $50 million.
Ronovo is committed to “democratizing access to surgical robotics on a global scale,” CEO John Ma, a former Intuitive Surgical executive, said in the statement.
Ma and Ying Mao, chief operating and technology officer, founded Ronovo in 2019. Mao came from Monarch robot developer Auris Health, which J&J acquired that same year.
Ronovo’s Carina robot received regulatory approval from China’s National Medical Products Administration in March for general surgery, gynecology, urology and thoracic surgery. The modular soft tissue platform addresses the “flexibility, adaptability and affordability challenges posed by legacy robotic surgical systems,” Ronovo said.
The collaboration with J&J will accelerate commercial momentum in China and lay the foundation for international growth, said Ma.
Ronovo is scaling up in an increasingly crowded field of surgical robots challenging Intuitive’s grip on the market. J&J itself is preparing to introduce a soft tissue robot called Ottava in the U.S. and has said it plans to submit a de novo application to the Food and Drug Administration in the first quarter of 2026.
Meanwhile, Intuitive has faced challenges in the China market since 2022, when several provinces set limits on what hospitals can charge patients for surgeries using robotic technology. The limits have affected the number of procedures performed and Intuitive’s instruments and accessories revenue, but have not had a material impact on the business as of June, the company said in a securities filing.
