Dive Brief:
- Digital health investment funding hit slightly over $2 billion in the first half of 2016, a Rock Health report stated.
- While funding is on par with 2014 and 2015 levels, the authors note it's important to keep in mind the industry expected such funding to decline this year.
- Digital health accounted for 8% of all venture funding, Rock Health's Mitchell Mom and Ashlee Adams wrote.
Dive Insight:
The digital health sector with the most funding so far is analytics and big data at $309 million, including a $175 million investment for Flatiron.
Jawbone received $165 million in 2016 so far, leading the wearables sector's $217 million influx so the first half of the year. It should be noted Jawbone has received a total venture funding investment of $948 million. "The company shuttered other business lines to focus on health products as investors continued to inquire about further growth," Mom and Adams wrote.
Population health and its management was the third largest funding sector with $184 million booked for the first half of 2016. A $70 million investment for Health Catalyst led the sector's funding. Investments in personal health investments ($132 million), EHR/clinical workflow ($127 million), and digital medical devices ($122 million) rounded out the report.
New corporate investors this year included UPMC (five deals) and Heritage Group (four deals) while Google Ventures and GE Healthcare continue to pump money into digital health. The authors stated 248 disparate investors were noted so far in 2016 and about 40% of them were investing "their first and only digital health deal since 2011."
As with real estate, location is everything. Over 36% of the invested funds were given to Bay Area-based companies with California dominating the total digital health landscape (41% of total investment). Texas, Massachusetts, and New York led the $100-$500 million tier of funding.