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Robotic surgery pioneer Dr. Fred Moll, best known as the cofounder of Intuitive Surgical, is now investing more than $100 million of his own wealth to back the next wave of medical robotics startups, according to a Forbes profile. There is no lead academic author or journal involved, as this is a business and technology feature rather than a research paper.
Moll helped invent the da Vinci surgical robot, which today performs around 3 million procedures a year worldwide. Although he left Intuitive in 2002, he believes robotics is only at the beginning of its impact. His ambition is to use robots—and increasingly artificial intelligence—to raise the standard of care by helping average surgeons perform difficult procedures with the skill of top specialists, whether in major hospitals or remote regions.
His investments span a wide range of early-stage companies tackling complex or high-volume procedures. These include robots for brain aneurysm repair (XCath), gastrointestinal procedures (Neptune Medical), cataract surgery (ForSight Robotics), automated blood collection (Vitestro), and heart valve replacement (Capstan Medical). Moll is particularly drawn to technologies that simplify procedures for doctors and expand access to care where specialists are scarce.
The largest of his bets is SS Innovations International, an India-based company developing lower-cost surgical robots and remote “telesurgery” capabilities. Its systems are far cheaper than existing market leaders, opening the door for robotic surgery in regions where high prices have been a major barrier. Recent demonstrations have included long-distance cardiac surgery performed hundreds of kilometres away.
Underlying Moll’s strategy is a belief that robotics combined with AI can transform medicine, especially for precision-demanding or repetitive tasks. By learning from vast amounts of surgical data, future robots could steadily improve performance over time—bringing safer, more consistent care to millions more patients around the world.
