Chinese financial media reported today that Sagebot (思哲睿智能医疗), a domestic surgical robot leader, has been given the greenlight to go public on Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Nasdaq-style STAR Market, said a notice issued by the listing committee on June 1.
Often dubbed China’s answer to Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci system, Sagebot plans to raise 2.029 billion yuan (US$285 million) from the sale of no more than 50 million shares, with CITIC Securities as the sponsor.
The float represents no less than 25% of the company’s total capital stock, according to Sagebot’s prospectus which it filed with the SSE last October.
Proceeds from the IPO will be used to facilitate R&D of surgical robots, commercialize projects, construct a distribution network, and supplement the firm’s working capital.
Founded in 2013 by Professor Du Zhijiang of Harbin Institute of Technology, Sagebot is among the country’s first firms to engage in the design, development, manufacturing and sale of endoscopic surgical robots.
Since its inception, Sagebot has completed several rounds of funding, backed by well-known investors such as Shenzhen Capital Group, Boshi, Essence Securities, Harbin Venture Capital Group.
Its pre-IPO valuation exceeded 8.3 billion yuan and was recognized as a unicorn of Harbin, its birthplace.
cnrobopedia reported last week that Sagebot’s staple products, an endoscopic robot series called Kangduo, were the first such devices to enter the specialized screening procedure for urological medical equipment.
The series landed a certificate from National Medical Product Administration (NMPA) in June 2022.
Kangduo is also the country’s first type of domestically produced endoscopic robots to complete 100 surgical clinical trials at a single hospital.
It achieved the first commercial installation in February 2023. A month later, the first Kangduo robot was adopted at a non-public domestic hospital.
