Funding for private wearable start-up companies has slowed this year, despite the big splash made by Apple's Watch and reports that consumers are more interested than ever in mHealth devices.
A CB Insights report says the funding decline could be as high as 72 percent, compared to high investment numbers seen in 2014.
The dip comes despite some big attention on wearables this year, such as Fitbit's surprising IPO, which beat industry expectations.
The amount invested in wearables this year is expected to hit $67 million, which would be the lowest funding since 2010, according to CB Insights. Wearables deals are projected to be about 50, a dip of 15 percent from 2014. The majority of investments are happening in seed and angel investments, which now account for roughly 55 percent of deals, a jump from 29 percent in 2011, the report adds.
While funding for wearables may be seeing a hit, VC for health IT overall is keeping pace with the record amounts raised in 2014. Health IT, in the third quarter of 2015, saw its investments rise 32 percent from Q2, with $1.6 billion in 148 deals, according to a report from Mercom Capital Group.
So far this year, venture capital funding has hit almost $3.57 billion. The third quarter proved more fruitful than Q2, which saw $1.2 billion raised through 139 deals, according to the report.
The most well-funded mHealth company is Jawbone, with $614 million raised, according to the CB report. However, Jawbone and Fitbit are at odds, with the former claiming the latter poached employees and stole intellectual property, FierceMobileHealthcare previously reported.
For more information:
- read the CB Insights report