AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mercom Capital Group, a global communications and research firm, released its annual report on funding and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in Digital Health / Healthcare Information Technology for 2018. Mercom’s comprehensive report covers deals of all sizes from around the world.
Global venture capital (VC) funding in Digital Health, including private equity and corporate VC, saw another record-breaking year in 2018 with $9.5 billion (B) raised in 698 deals, a 32% increase from the $7.2B in 778 deals in 2017. Total corporate funding for Digital Health companies, including debt and public market financing, reached $13B in 2018, a 58% increase from the $8.2B raised in 2017.
In 2018, announced debt and public market financing for Digital Health increased more than three-fold with ~$3.5B in 21 deals in 2018, compared to $1B in 34 deals in 2017.
Chart: Digital Health VC Funding 2010-2018
U.S. digital health companies raised ~$7B in 2018 with $2.5B from other countries.
Since 2010, digital health companies have received ~$47B in VC, debt and public market financing.
“Venture capital funding in Digital Health hit another high with almost $10B raised. Venture capitalists’ love of digital health companies is evident, but Wall Street is not yet convinced as more than 60% of publicly-traded digital health stocks traded below the S&P 500 in 2018,” commented Raj Prabhu, CEO and Co-Founder of Mercom Capital Group. “Funding deals every year have significantly outpaced M&A and IPO activity and exits continue to be a big challenge for digital health companies.”
Chart: Digital Health funding by category
Chart: Top-funded Digital Health categories
Categories that received the most funding: Data Analytics with $2.1B, mHealth Apps with $1.3B, Telemedicine with $1.1B, Mobile Wireless companies with $847 million (M), Clinical Decision Support with $714M, and Wearable Sensors with $703M.
Chart: 2018 Top VC Digital Health Categories
Top VC funding rounds: 23andMe with $300M, American Well with $291M, Butterfly Network with $250M, HeartFlow with $240M, and WuXi NextCode, Helix, and SomaLogic with $200M each.
Chart: 2018 Top Digital Health VC Funding Rounds
A total of 1,396 investors participated in digital health in 2018.
Chart: 2018 Top Digital Health VC Investors
There were 223 M&A transactions in 2018, compared to 203 in 2017. Eighteen companies made multiple acquisitions in 2018.
mHealth Apps were the most acquired category in 2018 with 32, followed by Data Analytics with 27, and Practice Management Solutions with 22.
The largest deal in 2018 was the acquisition of athenahealth for $5.5B by Veritas Capital and Elliott Management.
Chart: 2018 Digital Health M&A
Chart: Top 5 Digital Health M&A transactions
Download free Executive Summary: http://bit.ly/MercomDHQA18
Mercom Capital Group, LLC is a global communications and research firm focused on healthcare information technology, cleantech and financial communications. Visit: www.mercomcapital.com, signup to get weekly market intelligence reports.