Petal Surgical Raises Fresh Funds for Scalpel-Free Robot

The startup's ultrasound-based platform destroys tissue without cuts or heat — and now has more than $25 million to prove it works in humans.

By The Robotics Desk

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The company's core technology, Millisecond Pulse Histotripsy, uses precisely controlled high intensity sound waves focused deep inside the body to form a single, predictable vapor cavity. [1][2]

The roster behind Petal reads like a who's who of surgical robotics. Dr. Fred Moll — founder of Intuitive Surgical and Auris Health — sits on the board as investor and advisor. [1][2] Co-founders include Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon Dr. Nicholas Theodore and Rony Abovitz, a founder of Mako Surgical, the orthopedic robot platform now owned by Stryker. [1]

Surgery's side-effects have long been treated as an unavoidable tax on healing. Petal's bet is that sound, not steel, can collect that debt far more cheaply.

Petal plans to use the new capital to accelerate R&D, expand clinical readiness activities, and support its path toward human trials. [1]

If the first-in-human studies go well, the scalpel's 170-year monopoly on serious tissue treatment may finally have a credible competitor.

I am extremely excited about the clinical capabilities of boiling histotripsy and its ability to deliver touchless surgical intervention in the future.Frederic H. Moll, MD