'Healthcare IT venture capital funding up 32% at $1.6bn in Q3'

Venture capital (VC) firms invested USD 1.58 billion through 148 deals in healthcare IT companies, rising 66 per cent year-on-year, a report by Mercom Capital Group said today.
Private equity and corporate venture capital firms invested USD 1.19 billion (139 deals) in the second quarter of 2015 and USD 956 million (212 deals) in the same quarter of last year, the report said.
Total corporate funding raised in the sector, including VC, debt and public market financing raised by publicly-traded companies and IPOs for the third quarter of 2015 came to USD 2.1 billion, it added.
Debt and public market financing in the sector came to USD 495 million in nine deals, including two IPOs.

"VC funding into healthcare IT companies bounced back this quarter after a slow start this year. Rating, booking and comparison shopping companies had their best fund-raising quarter since we began tracking the category," Mercom Capital Group CEO and co-founder Raj Prabhu said.
Healthcare practice-centric companies raised USD 357 million in 42 deals in the said quarter as compared to USD 473 million in 41 deals in the preceding quarter of 2015.

On the other hand, consumer-centric companies raised USD 1.2 billion in 106 deals this quarter as compared to USD 727 million in 98 deals in the second quarter of 2015.

The top VC funded category this quarter was rating, booking and comparison shopping which brought in USD 728 million in 15 deals.
Mobile health companies ranked second with USD 319 million in 59 deals, with mHealth apps receiving USD 206 million and wearables/sensors receiving USD 88 million.
Personal health and wellness companies accounted for USD 114 million in 17 deals, followed by practice management companies (USD 72 million in 5 deals), telehealth (USD 65 million in 14 deals) and data analytics (USD 61 million in 14 deals).
The top VC deals this quarter included USD 394 million raised by Guahao, an online health information portal for patients in China to book appointments with physicians, USD 130 million raised by ZocDoc and USD 90 million raised by Indian start-up Practo.

The report covered a total of 551 companies and investors.