QUANTUM SURGICAL 2 (I-EU TI)

Promoter – Financial Intermediary

QUANTUM SURGICAL SAS

Location

• France

Description

The promoter is a French commercial stage innovative medical device company that develops and commercialises a robotic platform to assist surgeons performing complex surgical procedures in a minimally invasive manner.

Additionality and Impact

The project is line with the InvestEU objective of Annex II area 5.1 - 1. Health innovation investment.

The loan will provide direct quasi-equity financing supported by the Invest EU mandate to finance RD&I activities of an innovative French medical device company for among others expanding their robotic assisted surgery solution to new indication, adding new imaging modalities and ramping-up their manufacturing capacity.

The financing of this project addresses the failure in financial markets for RDI, arising from limited access and/or higher cost of financing as a result of factors such as information asymmetries (linked to, and intensified by, the inherent uncertainty of RDI activities, leading to high screening and monitoring costs), misalignment of incentives, lack of collateral and/or lack of track record. The creation of knowledge and support of skilled jobs in France will further contribute positively towards the EU's 3% RDI intensity target.



Thanks to the backing of Invest EU Thematic Innovation, the EIB may provide stable long-term funding, tailored to meet the expenditures during project implementation by limiting significant cash outflows from the Company in the short to medium term, thereby enabling it to focus on investing in innovation and growth. Absorbing such quantum of risk would not be possible without the Invest EU thematic Innovation guarantee. Thanks to EIB involvement, the borrower may crowd in other financing due to the lower level of perceived risk. The borrower will likewise benefit from the EIB's financial structuring expertise and technical contribution and advice.

The project would not have been carried out (to the same extent) by the EIB without the InvestEU support. The Company made significant research and development progress achieving additional approvals in new indications, it has still to make important commercial traction and increase its instalment basis in Europe and beyond. Hence, although a Company developing an important device for high unmet need indications, the financial risk profile remains still high, explaining the classification as Thematic InvestEU operation operation which benefits from the InvestEU guarantee. 

Objectives

The aim is to support the promoter's research and development (R&D) investments as well as clinical and regulatory spending. The project will also cover early market access expenses related to the development of an advanced Computerised Tomography (CT)-guided robotic surgery platform allowing surgeons and interventional radiologists to safely and accurately accomplish percutaneous ablation procedures. Such CT platform will initially address percutaneous abdominal and lung tumours ablation procedures to democratise this minimally invasive treatment for other abdominal interventions and later to other organs like bones.

Comments

Quantum Surgical S.A.S. is a French commercial stage innovative medical device company that develops and commercialises a robotic platform to assist surgeons performing complex surgical procedures in a minimally invasive manner.

Sector(s)

• Industry - Manufacturing

Proposed EIB finance (Approximate amount)

EUR 30 million

Total cost (Approximate amount)

EUR 65 million

Environmental aspects

The project mainly concerns investments in R&D and market access. All R&D investments are expected to be carried out in existing facilities already authorised for the same purpose and would therefore not require an environmental impact assessment (EIA) under the Directive 2014/52/EU amending the EIA Directive 2011/92/EU. Full environmental details will be verified during the appraisal.

Procurement

The promoter is a private company not operating in the utilities sector and not having the status of a contracting authority; thus, the project is not covered by the EU Directives on procurement. However, the promoter's procurement procedures are expected to be in line with EIB guidelines for private sector projects. The EIB's services will verify details during the project due diligence.

Status

Signed - 14/12/2023