MAKO surgical spinoff Neocis raises $72 million to expand robotic dental surgery

Miami’s technology scene notched another win this month as robotic dental surgery company Neocis announced it had raised $72 million from a West Coast investor syndicate.

Founded in 2013 by two former executives of billion-dollar robotics group MAKO surgical, Neocis employs approximately 80 workers, with about 50 of them based in Miami; its brain trust is headquartered at 2800 Biscayne Boulevard, better known as The Picasso Tower.

The new funds will be used to expand the use of Neocis’ principal product, a robotic surgery program called Yomi that’s designed to assist dental surgeons with teeth implant procedures, the company said. Neocis co-founder Alon Mozes said he anticipates nearly doubling Neocis’ head count in both research and development and sales, marketing and support.

Dental implants are now the standard of care, Mozes said, with dentures and bridges increasingly seen as causing more complications. Roughly five million implants are placed every year, a figure that continues to grow by about eight percent a year, Mozes said.

A Miami native and MIT graduate with a Ph.D in biomedical engineering from the University of Miami, Mozes said that while it has become easier for Neocis to hire locally, the company is still focused on recruiting top talent wherever it is found.

“We like new graduates from places like MIT or Stanford, or people with experience at high-tech companies like Google or Facebook,” he said. “We pull all the best we can.”

With a growing number of tech workers fleeing traditional tech hubs in search of a relatively lower cost of living and better weather, more talent is available, he said.

“[Miami is] becoming more attractive as people start thinking about leaving places like Boston or the Bay Area,” he said.

Neocis has raised more than $120 million in financing to date.