Dive Brief:
- Rock Health Digital reports health funding for Q1 2016 hit $981.3 million - the highest first quarter total since the venture fund group started tracking deals in 2011.
- The top six categories that comprised 77% of the deal value include wearables/biosensors, analytics/big data, population health management, consumer health information, healthcare consumer engagement, and EHR/clinical workflow.
- Mergers and acquisitions continue to be the most common route for digital health exits, according to the report.
Dive Insight:
The report authors said it is too early to predict what will happen with digital health funding over the rest of the year, but they remain optimistic.
The IPO market is uncertain with overall digital health performance down and digital health stocks trading below their first-day prices. Yet, M&A deals continue to increase, almost doubling from 2014 to 2015 in transaction volume.
According to the authors, M&A deals will continue to be the most popular liquidity event in the market.
Last year saw $4.5 billion in digital health funding and 187 M&A deals.