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Company

Distalmotion

surgical robotdistalmotion.com

Distalmotion is a Swiss surgical robotics company based in Lausanne, developing the Dexter robotic surgery system for minimally invasive abdominal surgery,…

Track Distalmotion
Founded
2012
HQ
Lausanne, Switzerland
Status
private (raised $150M Nov 2025)

The verified answer

As of Sep 2026, DEPLOY verifies Distalmotion: 1 model, 1 deployment across 1 region, 1 active incident. 4 sources back the record.

Regulatory status1 FDA De Novo authorization

Distalmotion holds 1 FDA De Novo authorization, per the DEPLOY registry.

See all 1 filings

CategorySurgical robots

Models

1

Deployments

1

Overview

Distalmotion is a Swiss surgical robotics company based in Lausanne, developing the Dexter robotic surgery system for minimally invasive abdominal surgery, combining remote-center motion with a compact, ergonomic surgical platform.

Verified record

Verified deployments
1 deployment on file
Active incidents
1 incident on file

Key facts

Product

Dexter hybrid laparoscopic surgical robot (robotic <-> manual mid-procedure); ASC cost-efficiency.

Gating events

CE Dec 2020; FDA De Novo Oct 2024 (inguinal hernia) + cholecystectomy + hysterectomy.

Origin

EPFL spinout

Patients treated

~3,000 patients

Data & sources

Press releases

1

Web sources

3

4 sources backing this record.View all →

Models (1)

View all models →

Current platform

Dexter

Distalmotion (founded 2012 in the Lausanne area of Switzerland as an EPFL spinout; private) makes Dexter, a hybrid laparoscopic surgical robot designed for cost-efficiency and operating-room integration that lets surgeons switch between robotic and manual laparoscopy within the same procedure. Dexter is a genuine master-controlled robotic manipulator that received its European CE mark in December 2020, with European market launch following in 2021, and then crossed the key US gating event with FDA De Novo marketing authorization in October 2024 for adult inguinal hernia repair, since expanded with two further US clearances covering cholecystectomy and gynecologic procedures including total benign hysterectomy. The company reports nearly 3,000 patients treated across Europe and the US, raised $150 million in November 2025 to accelerate US expansion, and positions Dexter for ambulatory surgical centers as a cost-efficiency play. The registry records it at commercial maturity, solidly past its gating events and in early US scale-up, with a teleoperated master-slave baseline and no shipped autonomy or AI-assist feature. One date-precision note: the CE mark is December 2020, while the 2021 figure sometimes cited refers to the European launch year. Exact installed-system and country counts are not verified for the private company, and the roughly 3,000-patients figure is company-sourced and plausible but not regulatory-audited.

surgicalView model →

Distalmotion on the deployment map

View the global map

1 verified deployment across 1 region, newest verified Jan 2022. Explore where Distalmotion's robots are operating, by place and type.

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View the full Distalmotion deployment record →

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Relationships

DDistalmotionCustomer

Explainers

Plain-language answers to the questions people ask about Distalmotion, from DEPLOY’s explainer library. Each is written in the language of the question and cross-checked against this registry.

What is a surgical robot?
A surgical robot is a computer-assisted operative platform that places robotic arms, instruments, and visualization systems between the surgeon and the patient. The 2026 commercial cohort includes Intuitive Surgical (da Vinci + Ion; 11,395 + 1,041 systems installed per SEC 10-Q), Medtronic Hugo, CMR Surgical Versius, Asensus/Karl Storz Senhance, Stereotaxis Genesis, Distalmotion Dexter, Moon Surgical Maestro (ScoPilot is the cohort's genuine shipped surgical AI standout, FDA-cleared with a Predetermined Change Control Plan), and Brain Navi NaoTrac (autonomous registration, not tissue manipulation). J&J Ottava (De Novo submission January 2026) and Vicarious Surgical V1 remain pre-market research per DEPLOY's FDA-clearance-as-gating-event framework. The autonomy spectrum runs from teleoperated baseline through analytics AI to narrow autonomous registration; tissue-manipulation autonomy remains research demos on production hardware, not shipped product.Read the full explainer →
What is the cheapest surgical robot?
Distalmotion's Dexter, at roughly $500K-$1M (2025 analyst estimate), is the cheapest FDA-cleared general soft-tissue surgical robot on record, undercutting da Vinci ($1.5M-$2.5M) and Versius ($750K-$1M).Read the full explainer →

Current leadership (2)

ArrivalsGreg Roche from Zimmer Biomet

DeparturesGreg Roche to Zimmer Biomet

Founders (2)

See all founders across the registry →

Board (2)

Safety record

1 incident on record (1 minor). Most recent: Jun 2026.

minor
1

Most recent: Jun 2026

Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.

Full safety record: incidents, sourcing, and exposure data →

Incidents affecting Distalmotion (1)

Includes incidents linked directly to this company, to its models, or to deployments of its models or under its operation. Retracted incidents are excluded from this view but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.

Operator customers (1)

Recent coverage

Distalmotion in third-party press

Distalmotion receives FDA 510k clearance for additional gynecology indications for DEXTER

Jun 16, 2026

Distalmotion Dexter robot cleared for gynecology indications by FDA

Jun 15, 2026

5 robotic surgery trends to watch in 2026

Jun 15, 2026

Peers

42 peers across 1 segment. Every Distalmotion competitor derived from shared form-factor and application-domain edges.

surgical robot(42)

28 companies in this segment · moderately_concentrated (HHI 2056.2102191459944) · leader Mazor Robotics at 3317%