Healthcare IT/digital health logs record VC funding in H1 2017

Global venture capital funding for healthcare IT or digital health companies in the first half of this year surged to an all-time high of USD 4 billion by way of 359 deals, translating into a jump of 33 per cent in value terms over the last year, says a report.
According to the Mercom Capital group, in the first half of 2016, the sector in question had seen VC funding worth USD 3 billion from 286 transactions.
In the April-June quarter, the total corporate funding in health IT companies, including VC, debt, and public market financing, stood at USD 2.4 billion as against USD 1.8 billion in the first quarter of 2017.

There were 19 notable Indian VC funding transactions in April-June this year, including fitness smartwatch maker HUG Innovations' raising around USD 5 million, Grow Fit raising around USD 4.5 million and healthcare and fitness appmaker CureFit raising USD 3 million, among others.
"This was the best half and best quarter ever for digital health companies as a result of a few very large deals. We are now comfortably on pace to have the biggest funding year for digital health companies," Mercom Capital group CEO and co- founder Raj Prabhu said.
Prabhu, however, noted that "even with such robust funding, there is still no sign of any digital health IPOs and M&A activity is yet to catch up with the funding momentum".

Top funded categories in the April-June quarter 2017 were patient engagement companies with USD 669 million, mHealth Apps firms with USD 325 million, data analytics companies with USD 264 million, and electronic medical records with USD 236 million, the report said.
As per the report, the digital health sector has received USD 22.5 billion in the 3,031 VC funding deals Mercom has tracked since 2010.