At $8B, Annual Digital Health Funding Has Already Surpassed 2017

^{Digital health funding continues to grow in 2018.}

With a record $8 billion in funding over the first nine months of 2018, the digital health sector has continued its upward trajectory, surpassing the total amount raised throughout last year, according to a new report.

What’s more, the third quarter of 2018 alone saw $3.1 billion in venture capital funding, setting yet another digital health record.

“The sector has significant momentum and substance behind this record funding, from regulatory support to entry of large tech and health companies — including a slew of intellectual property applications and FDA approvals,” noted Raj Prabhu, who heads Mercom Capital Group, which this week published the market report.

>> READ: What Do Mergers and Acquisitions Mean for Healthcare’s Digital Transformation?

Over the first three quarters of 2018, venture capital funding for digital health was 46 percent higher than at the same time last year. The $8 billion raised spanned 556 deals, trumping $5.5 billion across 586 deals in 2017.

By Mercom’s count, this boosts the total all-time digital health venture capital tally to $34 billion.

But where did this year’s digital health investments go?

Data analytics emerged as the leader with $1.8 billion in funding, while telemedicine secured $1.1 billion, mobile health apps secured $1 billion, mobile wireless secured $728 million, clinical decision support secured $655 million, wearable technology secured $457 million and wellness closed out the list with $318 million.

More precisely, in the largest transactions, 23andMe raised $300 million from pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline, American Well raised $291 million, Butterfly Health Network raised $250 million, HeartFlow raised $240 million in Series E funding, Helix raised $200 million in Series B funding and SomaLogic raised $200 million in a round led by a Chinese investor. The sum of these investments totaled almost $1.5 billion.

Digital health mergers and acquisitions, meanwhile, picked up from this point last year, with 172 deals in the books, compared to 146 in 2017.

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