XRlabs raises $8.4m seed to put AI software in operating rooms

XRlabs raises $8.4m seed to put AI software in operating rooms

19 October 2026: XRlabs, a London company whose software adds real-time AI to the equipment already in an operating theatre, has raised $8.4 million in seed funding led by Playground Global, with Eka Ventures taking part. It will spend the money on engineering and clinical staff, on regulatory approval in the UK, Europe and the United States, and on clinical evidence.

Not yet independently verified. The release is published on Business Wire and we found no copy on XRlabs' own site; the clinical claims are the company's own, and its platform is still going through regulatory approval. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

The round and the new chair

Alongside the round, XRlabs named Omar Ishrak chair of its board. Ishrak ran Medtronic as chairman and chief executive from 2011 to 2020, previously chaired Intel's board and sits on the boards of Amgen and Cleveland Clinic. The company also holds a compute allocation on the UK AI Research Resource, the government's national AI compute service.

"Our conviction is that the operating room is the next frontier for physical AI," said Dr Ali Haddad, the practising neurosurgeon who founded the company and is its chief executive. Bruce Leak, a general partner at Playground Global, said the firm looks for "someone who has lived the problem, backed by people who can build the solution."

How the software works

XRlabs builds modular, device-agnostic software that runs as an external AI layer across existing surgical systems, using computer vision and deep learning to turn live surgical video into guidance at the point of care. The company says it has run on 4K 3D surgical scopes, interfaced with navigation systems, and fused live video, navigation telemetry and pre-operative CT and MRI scans into one view of the operation, so hospitals do not have to replace equipment. It reports use in more than 100 surgical cases on three continents.

Its list of firsts over the past year includes what it calls the first-in-human use of physical AI in cranial neurosurgery, with Sony's ORBEYE 4K 3D exoscope under research conditions, AI-designed patient-specific implants used in the separation of conjoined twins, status as an NVIDIA robotics partner using Jetson Thor and Isaac for Healthcare, and a place for its XRlabs SIM planning tool among TIME's best inventions of 2025. These are the company's own descriptions.

Where it sits

XRlabs is headquartered in London with an office in Palo Alto. Its software sits between the hardware makers who supply scopes and navigation systems and the hospitals that buy them, which is also where regulators will draw the line between decision support and a medical device. The approvals it now funds will decide where the platform can be used outside research settings. Our medical imaging software category lists 5 products.

Company profile on TrustList: XRlabs

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• Stryker to invest USD 400 million in CMR Surgical and sell Versius in the US

Sources

• XRlabs (via Business Wire): XRlabs announces $8.4 million seed funding led by Playground Global, 19 October 2026