SS Innovation Acquires Nasdaq Listed Avra Medical Robotics To Foray In US Market

The Indian surgical robotic company, SS Innovation has now gained access to global capital and market through the acquisition of a controlling interest in Avra Medical Robotics, a Nasdaq-listed company in the United States.

In July this year SS Innovations became the first company in South Asia to launch its “Made in India” surgical robot SSI Mantra, a brainchild of robotic cardiac surgeon Dr Sudhir P Srivastava. And only four months after the company officially launched its robot for commercial purposes, the company has decided to pursue its commercial interests in the global market by acquiring a 95 per cent stake in  Avra Medical Robotics.

Avra is pushing the transition from assistive to semi-autonomous treatments in healthcare with an initial focus on aesthetics. The company is constantly working on semi-autonomous systems.

The announcement event saw the presence of Dr Frederic Moll, founder of the world's first surgical robot, the Da Vinci surgical system, Dr Moll is popularly known as the father of robotic surgery due to his incomparable contribution to the history of surgical robots. 

Dr Moll at the event said "I think can now say that I have elevated from father of robotics surgery to grandfather of robotics surgery with Dr Srivastava's robotic system coming into the helms of affairs and I am thrilled to be here to witness the progress and development of a new robotic system. I believe it is a great step forward for the general distribution of healthcare in the field of medical surgery. This system will provide the most advanced technology to patients around the globe, East and West alike."

The man and the brain behind the robotic company, Dr Sudhir P Srivastava, Founder, Chairman and CEO, SS Innovations said that this acquisition will help us reach the global market. Our innovation will be used widely. As we know that the future of Medtech lies in the precision of surgery and this acquisition will help us to bring this “Make in India” technology to the global platform. An Indian MedTech start-up will be there on NASDAQ, which is a proud moment for all of us.

Speaking with BW BusinessWorld, Dr Srivastava said presently the commercial goal remains to serve the Indian and the South Asian market, we have purchase orders coming in from all across the country, and for going in the US market one needs approvals, so for that, we will be initiating the process of trials in January. 

While talking about the company's future plans he said, "We hope to raise 100-200 million dollars in the next few months in public markets, currently, also we are actively pursuing funding activities but for now we won't be able to give any details on that."

Highlighting the merger deal between SS Innovations and Avra Medical Robotics, Dr Srivastava stated that there is no money exchange, we have only pooled the IPs together, our US holding company SSI Group Company has taken over 95 per cent of Avra and it gives us immediate access to being a public company and the trading will start on Nasdaq in next two to three months. 

Present at the event Barry F Cohen, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Avra Medical Robotics told BW BusinessWorld that Avra has been a public company for about 6-7 years which means that it is listed and trades actively and there will be an exchange of shares between Avra and SSI, Avra’s name will change to SSI in the US and the Avra organisation will be absorbed into the SSI engineering world.

He further said while explaining the merger deal Avra will continue its work in AI and Machine learning, and robotic applications, "our world is into aesthetics but technically the entire company will become SSI and the stock will trade in the US and there will be a series of uplistings to the bigger exchanges and fundraising, and I will be heading the SSI activities in the United States," he stated.

Speaking about the future plans Cohen said that Avra is in the world of AI in robotic procedures and we aim to improve organ targeting inside the body so we will bring our navigational expertise to the SSI Mantra systems.

On SSI Mantra's entry into the world of surgical robots, Cohen noted that the important medical companies, doctors, surgeons, and financial organisations who are extraordinarily familiar with Intuitive operations for many years were absolutely shocked that this came out of India from this invisible man who was thwarted along with me in Europe eight years ago. I am so pleased to say that he did what he was not supposed to be able to do, and what has come out of India wasn't supposed to come out of India, but you know what here it is and it works.