In the first half of 2015, digital health funding has surpassed $2 billion, keeping close pace with 2014, which was a record-breaking year for the industry, according to a report from Rock Health.
While the first six months of this year have brought in about $70 million less compared to last year, the average deal size is about $15 million--higher than 2014's $14.6 million, the report says. Rock Health's data only includes U.S. deals of more than $2 million.
Another new report, from Mercom Capital Group--which examines all deals of all sizes globally in Q2 of 2015--finds that venture capital funding in health IT rose to $1.2 billion with 138 deals.
Mobile health companies brought in the most funding at $214 million, with personal health companies close behind at $209 million, Mercom reports. The Rock Health report also reflects the trend of growing investment in mHealth, with wearables and biosensors raking in $387 million. Behind that is analytics and big data, which brought in $212 million in funding.
IPOs in digital health also had a big impact, both reports say.
"In the healthcare IT sector, companies raised more money through IPOs than venture capital this quarter," Raj Prabhu, CEO and Co-Founder of Mercom Capital Group, says in an announcement. "Growth in public market financing is an encouraging sign for companies in this sector as it opens up another avenue for funding and an exit path for investors."
One of those IPOs was for Teladoc, which raised $157 million.
StartUp Health also recently released a mid-year report on the digital health market, saying that it continues to mature heading into the second half of 2015. In the second quarter of 2015, digital health saw investments totaling $1.7 billion, compared to $1.8 billion in Q2 of 2014, according to that report.
To learn more:
- here's the Rock Health report
- check out Mercom's report summary (.pdf)