StartUp Health: Digital health funding keeps pace with last year’s record

StartUp Health H1 2019

After Rock, it’s time for StartUp Health to release its half year report, which suggests that so for this year is great.

In fact, despite seeing a decrease of 23% in deal counts from the first half of 2018 to the first half of 2019, the market continues to rebound. A deal slump that started in Q3 of last year, has now increased for the second quarter in a row, with mega deals pushing the total figure north. Also, during 2019 we’ll see the first digital health IPOs after a three-year drought, with a few companies already registering with the SEC to go public.

Of all the sectors, StartUp Health identified Personalized Health to have the biggest jump in quarter-over-quarter funding – from $115M in Q1 to $752M in Q2 2019. As InsureTech giants like Clover Health and Collective Health align with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ launch of improved reimbursement models for digital solutions, so do companies that focus on digital treatments and diagnostics. These two functions, acting simultaneously, push to make sure that available personalized therapies will actually be available to patients.

On a year-over-year basis, the Women’s Health Moonshot shows the highest increase in funding (114%) and in deal count (67%).

Access to Care has a 67% increase on a year-over-year basis in the first two quarters. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, top prizes for increases in funding and deal count go to Nutrition & Fitness and Brain Health Moonshots.

The largest U.S. deals in Q2 2019 were:

  1. Collective Health ($205M) – Insurance (category)
  2. Tempus ($200M) Research
  3. Thrive Earlier Detection ($110M) – Personalized Health
  4. Encoded Therapeutics ($104M) – Research
  5. BostonGene ($100M) – Research
  6. Ro, formerly known as Roman ($85M) – Patient Empowerment
  7. BlackThorn Therapeutics ($76M) – Personalized Health
  8. Omada Health ($73M) – Patient Empowerment
  9. Frontier Medicines ($67M) – Research
  10. Jawbone Health ($65M) – Patient Empowerment

Largest non-U.S. deals in Q2 2019:

  1. Tencent Trusted Doctor ($250M) – Personalized Health (category)
  2. CureFit ($120M) – Wellness
  3. DocPlanner ($90M) – Patient Empowerment
  4. 1mg ($70M) – Patient Empowerment
  5. CarePay International ($45M) – Patient Empowerment
  6. Elvie ($42M) – Wellness
  7. Biofourmis ($35M) – Personalized Health
  8. Zava ($32M) – Clinical Workflow
  9. DayTwo ($31M) – Personalized Health
  10. LetsGetChecked ($30M) – Patient Empowerment

Also released was the list of the most active investors in 2019 so far. StartUp Health was a clear leader with 8 deals; GV made 6 deals; while Sequoia Capital, F-Prime Capital Partners, Khosla Ventures, Echo Health Ventures and NEA — each made 5 deals.

When it comes to most active metro areas in the United States in 2019 so far, San Francisco Bay Area led the way with $2.0B raised across 59 deals, followed by Boston with $668.9M raised across 25 deals, New York City ($558.6M – 39 deals), Chicago ($230.2M – 9 deals), Salt Lake City ($125.0M – 2 deals), Denver ($113.4M – 9 deals), Columbus ($75.2M – 3 deals), Seattle ($72.9M – 10 deals), Boulder ($60.0M – 1 deal), and Phoenix ($48.0M – 3 deals).

Finally, most active non-U.S. metro areas in 2019 so far were Beijing ($486.0M – 7 deals), Paris ($321.0M – 7 deals), Tel Aviv ($181.9M – 12 deals), Bangalore ($178.1M – 6 deals), London ($129.9M – 13 deals), Guangzhou ($103.0M – 2 deals), Warsaw ($102.5M – 2 deals), National Capital Region, India ($85.0M – 6 deals), Zhejiang ($80.0M – 1 deal), and Lausanne ($77.0M – 1 deal).