Earnings call transcript: Vicarious Surgical outlines Q1 2025 progress and challenges

Vicarious Surgical Inc. (RBOT) provided an update on its Q1 2025 performance, highlighting a decrease in operating expenses and advancements in its surgical robotic systems. The company reported an adjusted net loss of $15.3 million, or $2.58 per share. Following the earnings call, the stock saw a 2.9% increase during regular trading hours, closing at $8.62, but dipped 3.04% in aftermarket trading. According to InvestingPro analysis, the company appears undervalued at current levels, with a "Fair" overall financial health score of 2.0 out of 5.

Key Takeaways

• Operating expenses decreased by 2% compared to Q1 2024.
• R&D expenses were reduced, while G&A expenses saw a slight increase.
• The company is advancing its surgical robotic system, aiming for clinical-stage status in 2025.
• Strategic partnerships are being leveraged to optimize surgical workflows.
• The stock experienced volatility, with a notable aftermarket decline.

Company Performance

Vicarious Surgical continues to focus on innovation within the surgical robotics market, which it describes as having 96% white space. The company is progressing with the development of its single-port robotic system, completing key components and preparing for initial human clinical trials. Despite a net loss, the reduction in operating expenses and strategic partnerships signal a targeted approach to growth.

Financial Highlights

• Total operating expenses: $15.7 million, a 2% decrease from Q1 2024.
• R&D expenses: $9.4 million, down from $10 million in Q1 2024.
• G&A expenses: $5.3 million, up from $5 million in Q1 2024.
• Adjusted net loss: $15.3 million or $2.58 per share.
• Cash balance: $37 million, with a projected full-year cash burn of $50 million.

Market Reaction

The stock price of Vicarious Surgical rose by 2.9% during regular trading hours to $8.62, reflecting investor optimism about the company’s technological advancements and strategic direction. However, the stock fell by 3.04% in aftermarket trading, indicating some investor caution regarding the company’s financial outlook and cash burn rate. The stock currently trades at $8.87, sitting roughly midway between its 52-week range of $4.27 to $19.00. InvestingPro analysts have set a consensus target range of $8.50 to $13.00, suggesting potential upside from current levels.

Outlook & Guidance

Vicarious Surgical anticipates becoming a clinical-stage company in 2025, with the first human clinical cases targeted for later in the year. The company is focused on obtaining regulatory approvals and is preparing a technical dossier for submission by mid-2025. Financially, the company is evaluating financing options to support its development plans while maintaining disciplined capital allocation.

Executive Commentary

CEO Adam Sachs emphasized the company’s evolution towards becoming a clinical-stage entity, stating, "2025 is the year Vicarious Surgical evolves into a clinical stage company." CFO Sarah Romano highlighted the importance of efficient cash use, noting, "We’re reviewing all costs, ensuring that our cash is being used in the most effective way possible."

Risks and Challenges

• Regulatory approvals: Delays could impact the timeline for clinical trials.
• Cash burn rate: Managing cash efficiently is critical given the projected $50 million burn.
• Market competition: The company must differentiate its technology in a competitive landscape.
• Supply chain management: Ensuring a stable supply chain is vital for production and development.

Vicarious Surgical’s Q&A session revealed confidence in supply chain management and ongoing discussions about financing options. The focus remains on leveraging partnerships and optimizing surgical workflows, positioning the company for future growth in the surgical robotics market.

Full transcript - Vicarious Surgical Inc. (RBOT) Q1 2025:

Nadia, Call Coordinator, Vicarius Surgical: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Vicarius Surgical twenty twenty five First Quarter Earnings Call. My name is Nadia, and I’ll be coordinating the call today.

Will now hand over to your host, Webb Campbell, Investor Relations, to begin. Webb, please go ahead.

Webb Campbell, Investor Relations, Vicarius Surgical: Good afternoon. Today, after market close, Vicarious Surgical released financial results for the three months ended 03/31/2025. A copy of the press release is available on the company’s website. Before we begin, I’d like to remind you that management will make statements during this call that include forward looking statements within the meaning of federal securities law, which are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements contained in this call that relate to expectations or predictions of future events, results or performance are forward looking statements.

All forward looking statements, including without limitation, those relating to obtaining approval for the Vicarious Surgical System and the timing of any such approval, our operating trends and future financial performance, expense management, market opportunity and commercialization are based upon current estimates and various assumptions. These statements involve material risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ or events to materially differ from those anticipated or implied by these forward looking statements. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on these statements. For a list and description of these risks and uncertainties associated with our business, please refer to the risk factors set in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including in our most recent Form 10 ks and Form 10 Q. This conference call contains time sensitive information and is accurate only as of the live broadcast today, 05/12/2025.

Vicarious Surgical disclaims any intention or obligation, except as required by law, to update or revise any financial projections or forward looking statements, whether based on new information, future events or otherwise. Now I’ll hand the call over to Adam Sachs, Co Founder and CEO, for prepared remarks. Adam?

Adam Sachs, Co-Founder and CEO, Vicarius Surgical: Thanks, Webb. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining Vicari Surgical’s first quarter twenty twenty five earnings call. I’m pleased to be here today alongside Sarah Romano, our Chief Financial Officer. We’re especially delighted to have Sarah with us for her first earnings call as an official member of the Vicarious team, having joined us at the April. Sarah begins excuse me, brings decades of financial leadership experience and substantial knowledge from prior CFO positions at innovative businesses in the health care sector.

She has run successful fundraising activities, M and A initiatives and operations strategies in her career. Turning to our recent business progress. It is truly an exciting time at Vicarious Surgical. For the last decade, our vision has been to revolutionize robotic surgery by overcoming the limitations inherent in open, laparoscopic, and existing robotic approaches. After years of dedicated effort in developing our proprietary decoupled actuating technology and meticulously refining our surgical system to enable minimally invasive procedures through a single small incision, we are just a few quarters away from our biggest milestone yet, our first clinical patients.

We anticipate 2025 will be the year Vicarious Surgical evolves into a clinical stage company and demonstrates the immense value of our single port surgical system. For the current year, our efforts are directed toward the precise and timely execution of all critical intermediate steps essential for our success in the clinic. These include, first, the expansive inventory build out of instrument arms, cameras and capital equipment to support our schedule of rigorous testing. Second, the successful completion of all essential performance and safety testing with our surgical system, such as sterility, biocompatibility and electromagnetic compatibility. Third, securing appropriate in country regulatory approvals to advance clinical work at our respective planned sites.

In the first quarter, we successfully built our first patient card and surgeon console for formal preclinical testing and have since begun system integration as well as the construction of our second surgeon console and patient card that will be utilized in our first human cases. Further, our initial instrument sets have completed production and have completed bioburden review. With these results in hand, we expect to begin initial biocompatibility and sterility testing on new inventory momentarily as well as to send additional instruments for sterilization and subsequent essential performance and safety testing. On the clinical side, we are preparing for our first human cases. We expect to treat a handful of patients at a few sites.

The endpoint for these initial patients will align with that of our pivotal trial, focusing on the surgeon’s ability to successfully complete the intended ventral hernia repair. We continue to advance through the approval process required to perform our first clinical procedures. We are maintaining close collaboration with reviewers in this process, providing necessary information for their review of the study design, methodology, and procedures. Beyond our development and clinical progress in the quarter, we are also pleased to announce our latest strategic hospital system partnership with UMass Memorial Medical Center, a premier health care system in the greater Boston area and clinical partner of the esteemed University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School. This collaboration will concentrate on optimizing critical elements of implementing a robotic system, including refining para operative practices, enhancing surgeon education through mentorship and system testing, and establishing ambassadorship activities to drive best practices and adoption of our version one point o system.

UMass Memorial’s regional prominence, academic focus, and close proximity to our Waltham headquarters make them an invaluable partner as we work to optimize the integration of our technology into hospital environments. This collaboration adds to our strong set of existing partnerships with several leading health care institutions and providers, including HCA Healthcare, University Hospitals, Pittsburgh Creates, Intermountain Health, and LSU Health New Orleans. These strategic collaborations, combined with the unwavering commitment of our team, give us a strong conviction and our capability to realize our corporate mission and achieve our objectives for the year. We are increasingly optimistic that the progress made in the first quarter will enable us to showcase the groundbreaking value of our V1.0 system in a clinical setting later this year, a pivotal moment which we are keenly focused on. With that, I’ll now turn the call over to Sarah to review our first quarter financial results.

Sarah Romano, Chief Financial Officer, Vicarius Surgical: Thank you, Adam. Total operating expenses for the first quarter of twenty twenty five were $15,700,000 a 2% decrease compared to $16,100,000 in the first quarter of twenty twenty four. R and D expenses for the first quarter of twenty twenty five were $9,400,000 compared to $10,000,000 in the first quarter of ’twenty four. General and administrative expenses for the first quarter of ’twenty five were $5,300,000 compared to $5,000,000 in the first quarter of ’twenty four. And first quarter twenty twenty five sales and marketing expenses were $1,000,000 essentially flat from the prior year period.

Further, adjusted net loss for the first quarter of twenty twenty five was $15,300,000 or $2.58 per share as compared to $15,100,000 or also $2.58 per share in the first quarter of twenty twenty four. GAAP net loss for the first quarter of twenty twenty five was $15,400,000 or $2.6 per share. This compares to a net loss of $17,000,000 or $2.9 per share in the first quarter of twenty twenty four. For a reconciliation of all non GAAP measures to GAAP, please review our earnings press release. We ended the first quarter of this year with approximately $37,000,000 of cash, cash equivalents and short term investments on our balance sheet.

This represents our first quarter cash burn rate of approximately 12,000,000 We continue to expect full year 2025 cash burn to be approximately $50,000,000 and we remain committed to disciplined capital allocation. 2025 is off to a strong start, and we look forward to updating you as we progress with our business initiatives in the coming quarters. With that, I will turn the call back to Adam for closing remarks.

Adam Sachs, Co-Founder and CEO, Vicarius Surgical: Thanks, Sarah. Vicarious Surgical is on course for a transformative 2025. The team’s solid first quarter performance puts us firmly on the path to achieving our first major clinical milestone later this year. Our achievements are, as ever, a direct result of the unwavering dedication of our team, coupled with the invaluable support of our investors and stakeholders. Thank you for your continued belief in Vicarious Surgical.

And thank you to everyone who joined the call today. We appreciate your support and look forward to updating you on our continued progress. Nadia, we’re ready for questions.

Nadia, Call Coordinator, Vicarius Surgical: Thank you. Our first question goes to Ryan Zinnerman of BTIG. Ryan, please go ahead.

Izzy, Analyst, BTIG: Hi, everyone. This is Izzy on for Ryan. Thank you for taking the questions. And Sarah, congrats on your new role here. Just to start out, given your current cash balance right now and the expectations for burn through the year, I was just curious what assurances you can give to investors about your continued ability to fund operations?

Sarah Romano, Chief Financial Officer, Vicarius Surgical: So hi. Nice to hear from you, and thank you for the question. So our main focus is on disciplined spending, ensuring that we stay within budget while also ensuring that we produce a safe and effective product. So we’re reviewing all costs, ensuring that our cash is being used in the most effective way possible. Additionally, we are thinking strategically about our our financing.

We’re currently evaluating all options that are available to us. We do have a very supportive insider base. We believe that they’ll be very supportive going forward as well, and hopefully some new investors coming coming to the table as well. With several upcoming exciting milestones ahead, you know, we’re hoping to structure a financing around these. So I think, know, we’re all very optimistic here, with with our ability to to finance the company.

Izzy, Analyst, BTIG: Got it. That that’s helpful. Thank you, Sarah. And as we think about the supply, just curious if you guys are how you’re feeling about your ability to supply any remaining components for the v one o build? Anything that we should be aware of there?

Thank you for taking the questions.

Adam Sachs, Co-Founder and CEO, Vicarius Surgical: Yeah. So last quarter, we did note some challenges with our supply chain. It’s obviously quite a complex supply chain for a fairly complex system overall. And that being said, we’ve managed this effectively, and we have not seen any, you know, further changes or adjustments in our schedule as a result of supply. So I would say, at the moment, we’re feeling quite good about our supply chain.

We have a pretty amazing team that manages the entire supply chain for our business, and they’ve been able to do so effectively in the last quarter.

Izzy, Analyst, BTIG: Got it. Thank you for taking the questions.

Adam Sachs, Co-Founder and CEO, Vicarius Surgical: Thank you.

Nadia, Call Coordinator, Vicarius Surgical: Thank you. And the next question goes to Josh Jennings of TD Cowen. Josh, please go ahead.

Eric, Analyst, TD Cowen: Hi, this is Eric on for Josh. Thank you for taking the question. I wanted to ask about the technical dossier submission that should be unlocking your ability to conduct first patient testing. I was just hoping for a little more detail on the review timeline expectations. So I think you said in the past that it could be a few months, and I was just hoping we could talk through the assumption there and where it comes from and and also if that factors in some potential questions that you could be receiving from the agency.

Adam Sachs, Co-Founder and CEO, Vicarius Surgical: Yeah. Thanks, Eric. I appreciate the question. So overall, we’re looking around mid this year at filing our technical dossier in country in order to do these first clinical patients. This includes a ton of information, all of the safety testing and performance data that’s required to use our system in the first human cases later this year.

So we’re really excited about this. We’ve made a set of assumptions that enable us to do these first patients later this year, And that is based on a number of assumptions around other companies with similar products, similar levels of complexity that have filed in similar countries or actually the same country or the same agency in the last year or two. So we feel fairly confident in these assumptions. We have that does bake in some time to go back and forth, hence why we’re filing in the middle of this year and doing those first cases later this year.

Eric, Analyst, TD Cowen: Understood. That makes sense. And then on the hospital partners that you’ve been announcing, and congrats on the recent announcement today, to what extent could they be additive to your development process as we stand right now? Or is that really something that once you reach commercial stage, the benefit of those partners will become evident?

Adam Sachs, Co-Founder and CEO, Vicarius Surgical: So first, the the second part of your question there, 100%. I mean, we are working with these partners, and they are working with us because they’re excited about what we’re doing. And they want to see it in the operating room and be able to use it in the operating room. And this is a market that is 96% white space that has incredible opportunity and not nearly enough surgical robotics or robots out in the field today, which gives these hospital systems the opportunity and and the the availability to purchase our system when we’re on market because of its differentiation and the promise of visualization, dexterity, sensing capabilities, and ability to operate. To to answer directly about what we’re working on with them, especially with the the latest system with UMass, it’s primarily focused around paraoperative workflow and procedures, really making sure not only that we’ve designed a system that is is excellent for workflow and able to do procedures in an efficient, streamlined manner, but on top of that, that we’re actually designing the workflow around the system and around what makes sense for the operating room today.

Eric, Analyst, TD Cowen: That makes sense. Thank you for the questions.

Adam Sachs, Co-Founder and CEO, Vicarius Surgical: Yeah. Thank you.

Nadia, Call Coordinator, Vicarius Surgical: Thank you.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.