Global venture capital funding in healthcare IT or digital health companies in the January-March quarter surged to a record USD 2.5 billion, the highest quarterly funding total for the sector, says a report.
According to global communications and research firm Mercom Capital Group, venture capital (VC) funding into digital health companies in the first quarter of this year saw 187 deals worth USD 2.5 billion, while in the year-ago period there were 165 such transactions worth USD 1.6 billion.
Digital health VC funding deals were distributed across 24 countries and there were 12 Indian healthcare IT companies that received VC funding in the first quarter of this year.
The January-March quarter of this year witnessed the highest quarterly funding total ever recorded for the sector and was only the second quarter since 2010 in which digital health companies surpassed USD 2 billion in VC funding, the report noted.
"Digital health VC is off to a record start in 2018 with USD 2.5 billion beating the previous record of USD 2.4 billion from Q2 2017. Several large deals over USD 100 million pushed the funding total up in the quarter, with activity powered by over 400 investors, Mercom Capital Group CEO and Co-Founder Raj Prabhu said.
A total of 412 investors (including one accelerator/incubator) participated in funding deals in January-March 2018 compared to 371 investors in October-December 2017.
The top VC deals in the first quarter of this year included USD 240 million raised by Heartflow, USD 200 million from Helix, USD 200 million raised by SomaLogic, USD 146 million by PointClickCare, and Collective Health's USD 110 million raise.
The total corporate funding for digital health companies - including VC, debt, and public market financing - came close to USD 3 billion in January-March 2018 compared to USD 1.8 billion in October-December 2017, the report noted.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content