Vicarious Surgical Starts Trading As It Prepares To Launch Its Surgical Robots And Take On Intuitive – Forbes

Adam Sachs, cofounder and CEO of Vicarious Surgical, which went public today via SPAC.

Adam Sachs, cofounder and CEO, of Vicarious Surgical eagerly awaited this mornings first trade of his surgical robot company under the ticker RBOT on the New York Stock Exchange. Its honestly a dream come true, Sachs, 30, told Forbes on Friday in advance of trading.

Sachs, an MIT grad and alum of the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 list, officially launched Vicarious in 2014 with his college buddy, Sammy Khalifa, now the companys chief technology officer, and Dr. Barry Greene. Their goal: To make abdominal surgery faster, easier and subject to fewer complications, starting with hernia repairs.

The surgical robotics market has been dominated by Intuitive Surgical, which introduced its Da Vinci robots two decades ago, and now sports a market cap of $123 billion. As Intuitives patents expire and robotic technology advances, competitors including J&J and Medtronic, both of which have acquired surgical-robot startups, are vying to make robotic surgery as common as laparoscopy. Vicarious, which has received funding from Bill Gates, Vinod Khosla, Eric Schmidt and Jerry Yang, has a different approach, with a miniature robot that enters a patients belly through a single incision and can efficiently move in all directions, thanks to nine actuators.

Earlier this year, Vicarious agreed to merge with a SPAC set up by Hong Kong investor Donald Tang in a $1.1 billion deal. With the deal, it will have around $220 million that it intends to use for final stages of product development and FDA clearance. The company has told investors that it hopes its robots will be on the market in 2023, and that it expects to reach $1 billion in annual revenue by 2027.

For more on Vicarious Surgical, see our magazine story from earlier this year.

I am a New York based health and science reporter and a graduate from Columbias School of Journalism with a master's in science and health reporting. I write on

I am a New York based health and science reporter and a graduate from Columbias School of Journalism with a master's in science and health reporting. I write on infectious diseases, global health, gene editing tools, intersection of public health and global warming. Previously, I worked as a health reporter in Mumbai, India, with the Hindustan Times, a daily newspaper where I extensively reported on drug resistant infections such as tuberculosis, leprosy and HIV. I also reported stories on medical malpractice, latest medical innovations and public health policies.

I have a masters in biochemistry and a bachelors degree in zoology. My experience of working in a molecular and a cell biology laboratory helped me see science from researcher's eye. In 2018 I won the EurekAlert! Fellowships for International Science Reporters. My Twitter account @aayushipratap

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Vicarious Surgical Starts Trading As It Prepares To Launch Its Surgical Robots And Take On Intuitive - Forbes