Robeauté was founded in 2017, co-founded by Cartocci and Bertrand Duplat. It came about because Duplat approached Cartocci in 2016 following a project she did with a friend where the Eiffel Tower was transformed into a virtual forest of light during COP21 in Paris. He had the idea to create micro robots which could be deployed into the brain, an idea brought on by the loss of his mother to glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.

“He saw what it was like to not be able to intervene in the brain as a surgeon,” explained Cartocci. One treatment rests on surgeons being able to remove the tumour mass in the brain – but in Duplat’s mother’s case, the tumour was positioned in a way that meant it was inoperable. This is already
taking into account the low survival rate for patients with brain cancer.

“He [Duplat] had given it some thought already and said, ‘Listen, it’s never been done before, so there’s no blueprint on how you do something like this, but I think we can pull it off. And I would love for you to join me and create the company together’,” added Cartocci. And thus Robeauté was born.

Existing limitations

Today the company is 25-strong, and Cartocci took particular pride in mentioning the wide-ranging skill set of the team, who she described as “formidable”, which counts roboticists, scientists, and physicists among their ranks.

“[They’re] people that could have chosen very comfy jobs in the greatest institutes in the world, but decided to push the needle further in an entirely novel field,” said Cartocci, speaking to the shared belief in what Robeauté is doing.

The existing limitations for intervening surgically are where Robeauté believes its micro robots can help best. These limitations include the invasive nature of the tools surgeons currently use – which Cartocci described as “extremely invasive because they’re stiff and … being pushed through the brain like a straight needle” – and chemotherapy treatments that are injected into the bloodstream.

The micro robot they’ve created is approximately the size of a grain of rice. The idea is for a surgeon to send it into the brain with a carrier, such as a drug capsule, or a biopsy tool, depending on what the surgeon would like to do: such as provide treatment, diagnose, or monitor a disease. In likening the micro robot to a “rocket launcher” that carries cargo, Cartocci explained that the cargo can be different and adaptable.

“A patient will come into the doctor’s office, the doctor will assess the need to intervene or not,” said Cartocci. “If they do need to intervene, say for tumour extraction, they will scan the patient’s brain, have a map of what it looks like. They’ll then drill a tiny hole into the skull … insert a cap that contains the micro robot that will be injected subcortically.”

The benefit of doing it in this manner and not injecting it into the bloodstream, Cartocci explained, is that it won’t have to contend with the blood brain barrier.

“The therapeutics [chemotherapy treatments] that are in the blood can’t necessarily get past this barrier and into the brain. You’ve diluted it throughout the body and can’t up the dosage because it’s toxic.”

Once the micro robot has entered the brain, it will pass along a preplanned route designed by the surgeon prior to the intervention. It will be capable of moving along “semi-autonomously” Cartocci explained, and the surgeon will intervene if required, using a controller.

“The micro robot [then] backtracks to its entry port and is extracted through the cap. It’s a one-shot initial application. It goes in, does what it needs to do, and comes back out,” she said. If the micro robot takes a sample of the tumour, for example, it can assist the surgeon with characterising the tumour and understanding how it might mutate, therefore tailoring treatments accordingly. In the example of Parkinson’s disease, a neurodegenerative condition, understanding where the dopaminergic neurons are degenerating could be essential prior to initiating cell therapy.

Eight years on

When Duplat approached Cartocci, he said that he anticipated the project would take a couple of years. “It’s been eight years … it’s been a hell of a ride, and everything I could have wanted for my professional career,” Cartocci stressed.

This ride has included highlights such as integrating their first micro robot with the individual building blocks – the propeller and micro engine – and making it move in hydrogel.

“There’s this famous saying by Galileo Galilei, back when the church told him to give up on his thesis that the world moves around the sun … he says, ‘but it does move’, and for us we had that Eureka moment when we assembled all the building blocks."

Another highlight has been managing to raise funding; €1.4 million in the first five years. More recently, in January, Robeauté raised €27.2 million.

Raising money and investments can be a tricky landscape for startups to navigate, but Cartocci credited “a new generation of investors” that she hoped will redefine investments in deeptech and medtech.

From 2017 to 2022, the startup was in its R&D phase ensuring that the technology was feasible. From 2022 onwards, its focus has shifted to working through the regulatory phases, verification, and validation.

While in the stage of testing its tech on animals, the hope is to begin clinical trials in 2026 – marking approximately 10 years after Duplat realised that non-invasive tools could be developed to support the diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of brain diseases.

“There are many different [highlights], it’s a necklace of beads – rather than [having] just one or two huge moments, it’s many small things that add up to a fantastic voyage,” Cartocci concluded.

This article originally appeared in the May/June 2025 issue of Startups Magazine. Click here to subscribe