You ever try threading a needle while riding a rollercoaster in the dark? That’s about the level of precision we’re talking when it comes to endoluminal surgery. Except now, EndoQuest Robotics just flipped on the headlights, and did it with a robotic assist. The Houston-based crew just locked in $39.66M in fresh Series D-2 funding, co-led by Crescent Enterprises and the godfather of surgical robotics himself, Dr. Fred Moll. This isn’t just another round. This is a war chest aimed squarely at the future of scar-free surgery.
Let’s talk trajectory. Founded in 2017 as ColubrisMX and reborn in 2022 as EndoQuest Robotics, this company didn’t arrive at the table with a napkin pitch and a dream. They built a robotic system that doesn’t cut skin, it goes through natural orifices with precision, giving GI procedures a level-up in access, control, and finesse. Their ELS (Endoluminal Surgical) System is the first of its kind: flexible, AI-augmented, high-def visualization, haptic feedback, the kind of tech that doesn’t just play catch-up to human hands but enhances them.
The brains behind the build? Interim CEO Eduardo Fonseca is steering the ship, with Nicholas Drysdale keeping the numbers sharp as CFO. Dr. Todd Wilson, part medical mind, part innovation architect, has been instrumental in turning concept into clinical reality. And when a surgical legend like Dr. Eric Haas performs the first procedures using your tech at HCA Houston, you know you’re not in the sandbox anymore.
But funding doesn’t just happen because you’ve got shiny gear. EndoQuest earned this round the hard way, by getting into the FDA’s Safer Technologies Program, scoring IDE approval in late 2024, and enrolling patients into a pivotal trial at heavyweights like Mayo Clinic and Brigham and Women’s.
And let’s not sleep on the lineup backing them. Puma Venture Capital is back in the ring. The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston is betting local and thinking global. And McNair Interests, legacy backers, know what time it is. When Neeraj Agrawal of Crescent is on your board and Dr. Vipul Patel is tagging in, the signal’s clear: this isn’t some moonshot, this is surgical robotics entering its flexible phase.
With only two systems deployed globally, one at IRCAD France, the other at Harvard, the exclusivity is real, and so is the potential. This funding is fuel for scaling trials, fast-tracking FDA clearance, and carving a real lane in a $14.8B surgical robotics market. EndoQuest isn’t just chasing opportunity, they’re building the track.
