Kerman & Co’s Private Equity team recently represented Zhejiang Silk Road Fund, a private equity fund principally sponsored and managed by Zhejiang United Investment Group, China (“ZUIG”), on its equity investment in CMR Surgical Ltd’s (“CMR Surgical”) Series B funding round.

On June 4, 2018, CMR Surgical announced that it has closed a Series B funding round raising $100 million from new investor, Zhejiang Silk Road Fund and existing investors Escala Capital Investments, LGT, Cambridge Innovation Capital and Watrium. It is thought to be Europe’s largest ever fundraising in the medical devices industry.

Headquartered in Cambridge, England, CMR Surgical is developing the next-generation robotic system ‘Versius®’, for universal minimal access (or “keyhole”) surgery. The company’s vision is to make minimal access surgery universally accessible and affordable by significantly expanding the range of procedures that can be performed robotically.

Commenting on the investment James Wang, Managing Partner of ZUIG said “We are delighted to complete this transaction with the support of Kerman & Co. We relied upon Kerman for solid and sensible advice, which contributed greatly to the overall success of this investment.”

Paul Gilks, Partner at Kerman & Co, commented “We were delighted to work with the ZUIG team on this transaction. The role of the Chinese speaking members of our team was crucial in enabling us to meet the challenging timeline for completing the due diligence exercise and negotiating the legal documentation.”

The Kerman & Co team was led by corporate Partner Paul Gilks, and comprised Joan Yu (Corporate), Peter Kohl (Corporate), Claudia Otto (Real Estate), Zane Shihab (Trademarks), Coral Yu (Corporate), John Daly (Corporate), Eugenie Freeman (Employment) and Amit Bhangham (Real Estate).

ZUIG was also advised by Fraser Brown of Cleveland Scott York in respect of patent matters.