We are currently witnessing an avalanche of new robotic platforms for soft-tissue surgery. But until recently, robotic surgery was very different. For almost two decades, da Vinci had the market largely to itself. Or almost.
In 2017, South Korea’s Meerecompany launched Revo-i, a robotic surgical system that was strikingly similar to the da Vinci Si, Intuitive Surgical’s third-generation platform. The timing was significant: the da Vinci Xi had already been launched in 2014, so Revo-i arrived on the market looking, in many respects, like a generation-old da Vinci. But it was the only real alternative available at the time.
I started travelling regularly to South Korea in 2017, and Revo-i was there from the beginning. It was fascinating to see a domestic competitor to da Vinci being introduced while, in most of the world, Intuitive was still essentially alone. Revo-i obtained Korean regulatory approval and was used clinically in urology, gynecology, general surgery and ENT. It subsequently achieved some international exposure, but its commercial impact remained limited, with the vast majority of its use concentrated in South Korea.
That makes Revo-i an interesting precedent for today’s robotic-surgery boom. It demonstrated that building a technically credible alternative to da Vinci was possible. But also that technology alone does not guarantee market success. Installed base, clinical evidence, training, instruments, service and the ecosystem surrounding a platform matter enormously.
Today, the situation is completely different, with a rapidly growing number of soft-tissue robotic systems entering the market. There is clearly not enough room for all of them. Understanding what happened to the first challengers may help us understand what is likely to happen next. We don’t know yet which platforms will survive, which will disappear, and which will find a sustainable niche. But technical credibility alone is not enough to build a successful robotic-surgery business.
J Granell. Aug 29, 2026