Digital Health Investment Continues to Soar
Investment into digital health continues break records, according to the mid-year report from start-up accelerator firm, Rock Health.
The report found that the first six months of 2013 saw a record amount of investments into digital health companies. In total, the $849M invested in 90 different companies represents a 12 percent jump from the first six months of 2012.
By comparison, the report notes that overall venture capital (VC) funding and funding in traditional healthcare areas like medical devices and biotech is down. Funding in healthcare software is up 38 percent year-over-year, the report’s authors found.
The report notes that largest five deals in 2013 have represented 20 percent of all funding, thus far. Those deals included Proteus getting $45 million, Health Catalyst (an HCI 2013 Up-and-Comer) getting $41 million, Watermark Medical getting $32 million, NantHealth getting $31 million, and Healthtap getting $24 million.
Of the areas where investors are putting the most money into digital health, remote patient monitoring was the highest, as it has seen 12 deals for $102 million so far in 2013. There were 7 deals and $78 million invested in analytics and big data, Rock Health found and $69 million with 8 deals into electronic health records (EHRs).
The report also found that more VC deals were in the C-Round, up to 19 percent from 16 percent the previous year. It also discovered that crowd funding has become an attractive option for digital health investors, with 38 deals across Indiegogo, Kickstarter, Medstartr and Fundable, and $4.5 million raised.
In terms of deals, the report mentions that EHR vendors were the most active acquirers in the first half of 2013, mentioning Allscripts buy of dbMotion and Jardogs and athenahealth’s acquisition of Epocrates.
